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COMPEND OF CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
COMPEND OF 
 
 CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 FOR 
 
 Lutheran Young People* 
 
 BY 
 
 PEER O, STROMME, 
 
 
 >° 3 » J ^ \ »,.' 
 
 CHICAGO 
 JOHN ANDERSON PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 PROPRIETORS SKANDINAVEN'S BOOK DEP'T. 
 
 1902 
 
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 TKE~ LIBRARY >P 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 SEP. 2 1902 
 
 rjoPVPfOHT FXT5Y 
 
 CJ.ASS ^XXa No. 
 CO*Y 8. 
 
 Copyright 
 
 By PEER O. STROMME 
 
 1902. 
 
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CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Foreword 5 
 
 Introduction 6 
 
 I. THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 The Apostles 10 
 
 The Early Christian Martyrs 13 
 
 Constantine the Great and Julian the Apostate. . 19 
 The Religious Services and Customs of the Early 
 
 Church 22 
 
 The Church Fathers 25 
 
 Arianism and Athanasius 29 
 
 Augustine and the Pelagian Controversy 33 
 
 Monachism and Asceticism 37 
 
 II. THE CHURCH DURING THE 
 MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 The False Prophet Mohammed 41 
 
 Christianity Victorious throughout Europe 44 
 
 Popery 52 
 
 Superstitions and Heresies of the Roman Church 64 
 
 The Crusades 68 
 
 The Monastic Orders 75 
 
 The General Church Councils 78 
 
 The Reformers before the Reformation 82 
 
III. THE CHURCH IN MODERN TIMES. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Church Reformation by Martin Luther 89 
 
 Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin 109 
 
 The Early Struggles and Triumphs of the 
 
 Lutheran Church 114 
 
 The Growth of the Reformed Church 122 
 
 The Jesuits 130 
 
 Doctrinal Controversies in the Lutheran Church 135 
 
 The Divisions of the Reformed Church 141 
 
 The Church in Our Times 145 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 TT has seemed to me that a Compend 
 of Church History, in handy form 
 and in the English language, would fill a 
 want among our Lutheran young people. 
 For years I have therefore had it in my 
 mind to prepare such a book, hoping 
 that it might be read with interest and 
 profit in the homes, and that it might be 
 found useful in connection with the work 
 done by our Young People's Societies 
 and our Sunday Schools. I may add 
 that while the plan and arrangement of 
 the book are my own, I have, of course, 
 consulted other Church Histories, and 
 made use of that which seemed best. 
 
 Peer O. Stromme. 
 
 Madison, Wis., 1902. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 'T^HE Christian Church is in reality as 
 old as the world itself. It has ex- 
 isted ever since the creation of man; for 
 there always have been true believers, 
 who have done God's will on earth, and 
 who have gone to heaven when they 
 died. And all these have been saved 
 through faith in Christ. The church 
 history of the time before the coming of 
 Christ is the history of the Jews, God's 
 chosen people, as recorded in the Old 
 Testament. The true believers of that 
 day were saved by faith in the Savior 
 whom God had promised to send when 
 he said: "The seed of the woman shall 
 bruise the head of the serpent." They 
 truly believed in Christ, and were 
 
 6 
 
— 7 — 
 
 members of his church; for it was true 
 then, as now, that "there is no salvation 
 in any other; for there is none other 
 name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby we must be saved." 
 
 This earliest church history is, how- 
 ever, usually called Bible history, since 
 we have an account of it in the Bible. 
 By church history we now therefore 
 mean the history of the Christian church 
 after the time of Christ. It is generally 
 counted as beginning with the first Pente- 
 cost after the Ascension; the day on 
 which the Holy Ghost was poured out 
 on the apostles, as recorded in the second 
 chapter of The Acts. This is called the 
 birthday of the Christian church. 
 
 In the New Testament we learn some- 
 thing of the history of this early church. 
 It was founded at Jerusalem, where the 
 apostle Peter began preaching to the 
 people, urging them to repent of their 
 
— 8 - 
 
 sins 5 and to be baptized in the name of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 "Then they," — says the Bible account 
 — "that gladly received his word were 
 baptized; and the same day there were 
 added unto them about three thousand 
 souls. 
 
 "And they continued stedfastly in the 
 apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and 
 in breaking of bread and in prayers. 
 
 "And fear came upon every soul; and 
 many wonders and signs were done by 
 the apostles. 
 
 "And all that believed were together, 
 and had all things common; 
 
 "And sold their possessions and goods, 
 and parted them to all men, as every 
 man had need. 
 
 "And they, continuing daily with one 
 accord in the temple, and breaking bread 
 from house to house, did eat their meat 
 with gladness and singleness of heart, 
 
— 9 — 
 
 "Praising God, and having favor with 
 all the people. And the Lord added 
 daily to the church such as should be 
 saved." 
 
 Even while the apostles yet lived 
 wicked men found their way into the 
 churches, and tried to lead people astray 
 from the truth; and the Epistles warn 
 the Christians against founders of sects 
 and teachers of false doctrines. The 
 history of the church since that time re- 
 peats this warning; and it also strengthens 
 and comforts the believers by furnishing 
 proof that the truth of God is victorious, 
 and that the gates of hell can not prevail 
 against his church. 
 
I. THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 i. THE APOSTLES. 
 
 T N regard to the personal history of the 
 apostles we know little more than 
 that which is told us in the New Testa- 
 ment. It is supposed that all, with the 
 exception of John, became "blood-wit- 
 nesses," or martyrs; that is, suffered 
 death for their faith. The first among 
 them to lose his life in this way was 
 James, the brother of John. He was 
 executed at Jerusalem by King Herod 
 Agrippa about ten years after the death 
 of Christ. The other James, who is 
 called the brother of the Lord, died as 
 a martyr in the same city about twenty- 
 five years later. Peter is believed to 
 
 have preached the gospel to the Jews in 
 
 10 
 
— 11 — 
 
 Syria and Asia Minor, after which he 
 went to Rome, where he was crucified 
 in the year 66 or 67, during the time of 
 the persecutions under Emperor Nero. 
 The apostle of whose life we have the 
 most full account in the Bible is Paul; 
 but of his old age little is known. It 
 is probable, however, that he also, like 
 Peter, suffered death as a martyr in 
 Rome, and at about the same time. 
 The last survivor of the apostles was 
 John, who after his exile on the Island 
 Patmos made his home in the city of 
 Ephesus. There he died at a ripe old 
 age near the end of the first century. 
 Of the other apostles we know only that 
 they spent their lives in preaching the 
 gospel of Christ, and at last sealed their 
 faith with their blood, and thus went to 
 their reward. 
 
 The apostles began their work among 
 their own people; for it was the will of 
 
— 12 — 
 
 Christ that salvation was to be offered 
 first to the Jews, and then to the gentiles. 
 Of these latter the first to become 
 members of the Christian church were 
 the Centurion Cornelius of Caesarea 
 and his kinsmen and near friends. In 
 the ioth chapter of The Acts we read 
 that Peter preached Christ to these 
 gentiles, and taught them that "to him 
 give all the prophets witness, that 
 through his name whosoever believeth 
 in him shall receive remission of sins. 
 While Peter yet spake these words the 
 Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard 
 the word. — And he commanded them 
 to be baptized in the name of the Lord." 
 And thus "the gentiles also had received 
 the word of God." 
 
 Paul became the principal apostle of 
 the gentiles. He made the city of 
 Antioch the center of his mission work, 
 and from this place he travelled through 
 
— 13 — 
 
 Asia Minor, Macedon, and Greece, and 
 established many churches. After the 
 death of Paul the home of John in 
 Ephesus became the headquarters of 
 the mission work among the gentiles; 
 and before John died there were 
 Christian churches in all the larger and 
 in many of the smaller cities around 
 the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 
 
 2. THE EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 
 
 The first of the Christian martyrs 
 was Stephen, an account of whose death 
 is found in the 7th chapter of The Acts. 
 He had preached Christ to the Jews in 
 Jerusalem. For this reason they stoned 
 him; and he died " calling upon God, 
 and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my 
 spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried 
 with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin 
 to their charge. And when he had said 
 this, he fell asleep." 
 
— 14 — 
 
 After the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 by the Romans, in the year 70, the Jews 
 were scattered, and became powerless 
 to persecute the Christians. The 
 gentiles, or pagans, however, became 
 all the more zealous in their attempts to 
 stamp out the gospel of Christ, which' 
 was u unto the Jews a stumbling- 
 block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." 
 In the beginning the wise men of Rome 
 and Greece regarded Christianity with 
 contempt as being nothing but a Jewish 
 sect. The ignorant masses, on the 
 other hand, looked upon the Christians 
 as being wicked blasphemers, and 
 charged them with all sorts of infamous 
 crimes. The Roman emperors soon 
 began to fear that the new religion 
 might become dangerous to the peace 
 of the state; and so they set about to 
 persecute and kill the Christians. 
 
 The members of the church in Rome 
 
— 15 — 
 
 were the first to suffer. In the year 64, 
 A. D., nearly the whole city was de- 
 stroyed by fire; and the emperor, Nero, 
 was suspected of having himself caused 
 this fire to be started. In order to clear 
 himself of this suspicion he declared 
 that the destruction had been brought 
 about by the Christians; and thus he 
 had a pretext for persecuting them. 
 Some were crucified, others were torn 
 in pieces by wild beasts in the arena for 
 the amusement of the populace, and 
 still others were covered with tar and 
 set on fire to serve as torches in the 
 emperor's gardens. 
 
 The second persecution occured under 
 Emperor Trajan in the beginning of the 
 second century. The most notable of 
 the martyrs at this time was Ignatius, 
 the bishop of the church in Antioch. 
 He was, in the year 114, thrown before 
 wild beasts and torn in pieces. There 
 
— 16 — 
 
 were other persecutions under the Em- 
 perors Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus Pius, 
 Decius, and Diocletian. The one begun 
 by Decius was the first general perse- 
 cution; that is, the first which was 
 directed against all the Christian 
 churches. It lasted about ten years, 
 249-259, during which time Decius and 
 his successor, Gallus, made determined 
 efforts to destroy all Christians within 
 the Roman empire. A large number of 
 the bishops and teachers were put to 
 death; the plan being to kill the 
 shepherds, that the sheep might be 
 scattered. 
 
 The second and last of the general 
 persecutions occurred under the Emper- 
 or Diocletian in the beginning of the 
 fourth century. In the year 303 this 
 emperor gave orders that all Christian 
 churches were to be destroyed, and their 
 books burned; and large numbers of 
 
— 17 — 
 
 Christians were killed because they re- 
 fused to deliver up the sacred writings 
 in their possession. 
 
 Some there were, of course, who were 
 frightened and tortured into denying 
 their faith; but many more remained 
 steadfast, and praised God in the midst 
 of their sufferings, and joyfully accepted 
 the martyr's crown. There were even 
 many who became their own accusers, 
 in order that they might suffer and die 
 for their faith. 
 
 In the midst of these persecutions, and 
 as a result of them, the Christian church 
 gained in strength and numbers. At 
 the close of the third century the gospel 
 of Christ had been preached and was 
 believed in all parts of the Roman em- 
 pire, in northern Africa, in India, in Gaul, 
 and in the Roman provinces in the coun- 
 tries now called Germany and England. 
 
 The most noted of all the martyrs was 
 
— 18 — 
 
 Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, who 
 was burned at the stake in the year 155, 
 during the reign of the Emperor Anto- 
 ninus Pius. Like Ignatius he had in his 
 youth been a disciple of the apostle John. 
 When brought before the Roman judge 
 in Smyrna and urged to deny Christ, he 
 said: "Eighty-six years have I served 
 him, and he has done me good only, and 
 no evil. How, then, could I now curse 
 him, my Lord and my Savior?" When 
 his executioners were about to nail him 
 to the stake he objected, saying, that the 
 God in whom he believed would cer- 
 tainly give him strength to remain stand- 
 ing in the midst of the flames while life 
 endured. He was then heard to pray 
 and to thank God for the crown soon to 
 be given him. The legend says that the 
 flames refused to touch his body, and that 
 it became necessary for one of the exe- 
 cutioners to pierce his breast with a spear. 
 
— 19 — 
 
 The example of Polycarp and of many 
 others bore testimony to the truth that 
 the gospel of Christ was the power of 
 God unto salvation; and thus it came to 
 be said that "the blood of the martyrs 
 was the seed of the church." 
 
 3. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT AND 
 JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 
 
 In the year 323 Constantine, surnamed 
 the Great, became the ruler of the 
 Roman empire. He had for some years 
 been waging war against his rival em- 
 perors, and on one of his warlike expe- 
 ditions he is said to have had a vision. 
 He saw on the heavens a shining cross 
 with the inscription: "In this sign thou 
 shalt conquer." He placed a cross in 
 his banner, and soon succeeded in sub- 
 duing all his rival claimants to the throne. 
 He then formally declared Christianity 
 the official state religion of the empire. 
 
— 20 — 
 
 He built many fine churches and pro- 
 vided for their support, and granted 
 many privileges to the clergy. The 
 Christians were given great honor, and 
 received positions of profit. This state 
 of affairs was not, however, an unmixed 
 good; for there were many who now 
 joined the church because of the worldly 
 advantages which this offered. 
 
 As for Constantine himself, he seems 
 at first to have, regarded Christianity as 
 nothing more than a means of advancing 
 his own political schemes. He called 
 himself a Christian, and was friendly to 
 those of the faith; but he had no clear 
 knowledge of the truth. It was not until 
 shortly before his death that he was bap- 
 tized; his idea being that it must be a 
 wise thing to wait until the last moment, 
 and then let the church wash his sins 
 away. 
 
 After the death of Constantine the old 
 
— 21 — 
 
 pagan religion made one last effort to. 
 raise its head. The Emperor Julian, a 
 nephew of Constantine, made it his aim 
 to undo the work of his uncle. Julian 
 had been brought up as a Christian, but 
 became a bitter enemy of the faith; and 
 during the two years of his reign, 361- 
 363, he did everything possible to re- 
 establish paganism. Among other things 
 he encouraged the Jews in an attempt to 
 rebuild the temple at Jerusalem for the 
 purpose of disproving that which Jesus 
 had said concerning this temple. But 
 while the work was being carried on 
 there occurred a fire and explosion 
 which utterly destroyed the last ruins 
 of the building. 
 
 Julian did not persecute the Christians, 
 but treated them with contempt. He en- 
 couraged all manner of false doctrines, 
 and sought to make the Christian church 
 divided against itself. He appointed 
 
— 22 — 
 
 enemies of Christianity to all positions 
 of trust and profit in the state, and he 
 himself worshipped the old heathen gods. 
 However, all his efforts against the truth 
 were vain. During a warlike expedition 
 into Persia he was mortally wounded, 
 and it is said that his last words were: 
 "Thou hast conquered, Galilean." And 
 he was right; before the end of the 
 century all manner of idolatry had been 
 prohibited by law throughout the Roman 
 empire. 
 
 4. THE RELIGIOUS SERVICES 
 AND CUSTOMS OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 In the earliest Christian church the 
 religious services were held in the houses 
 of the members; but as their numbers 
 rapidly increased it soon became neces- 
 sary to build meeting-houses, or churches. 
 During the persecutions the Christians 
 often held their meetings in cellars, caves, 
 
— 23 — 
 
 or in the thick forests, in order not to 
 attract attention. The services consisted 
 in singing, prayer, reading of the scrip- 
 tures, and sermons by one or more of 
 the elders. Then the adult Christians 
 partook of the Lord's Supper, and the 
 celebration of this sacrament closed and 
 crowned the services. New converts 
 and infants were baptized; the first after 
 having been instructed in the most im- 
 portant articles of the faith. But in the 
 beginning it was the custom to celebrate 
 this sacrament in private. Later it be- 
 came the rule to bring the infants to 
 the church to be baptized. The early 
 Christians observed the beautiful custom 
 of holding frequent love feasts for rich 
 and poor alike; and these always closed 
 with the Lord's Supper. Important 
 events in the life of Christ were com- 
 memorated by special services; and Sun- 
 day, the day of his resurrection from the 
 
— 24 — 
 
 dead, soon came to be generally accepted 
 as the one day of the week most ap- 
 propriate to be set aside for the public 
 church services. The great festival of 
 the year was at first Easter; then Pente- 
 cost was added; and finally, Christmas 
 came to be generally celebrated as the 
 third of the great church festivals. 
 
 From the very first there were within 
 the church heretics, who refused to abide 
 unconditionally by the truth as set forth 
 in the word of God. Against such the 
 church waged continual war; and in 
 order that it might have a symbol, or 
 flag, around which the defenders of the 
 truth could be rallied, the church has 
 from time to time formulated its doctrine 
 in definite confessions. The first and 
 most important of these is The Apos- 
 tolic Creed, or the three Articles of 
 Faith, which still are the common con- 
 fession of all branches of the Christian 
 
— 25 — 
 
 church. The authorship of this Creed 
 is unknown; but we know that it has 
 come down to us from the first or second 
 century, and that it is a short but correct 
 epitome of the apostolic doctrine. 
 
 5. THE CHURCH FATHERS. 
 
 Those Christian teachers who during 
 the first five centuries wrote in defense 
 of the faith, and whose writings we still 
 have, in whole or in part, are called the 
 Church Fathers. The first of these are 
 known as the Apostolic Fathers, because 
 they were the immediate disciples of the 
 apostles. They are: 1. Joses, surnamed 
 Barnabas, the co-worker and assistant of 
 Paul. 2. Clemens Romanus, one of the 
 first bishops in Rome, whose letter to 
 the church at Corinth was at one time 
 regarded by some as being of equal au- 
 thority with the Epistles of the Bible. 
 
— 26 — 
 
 3» Hermas, the author of a religious 
 story, "The Shepherd," which was for a 
 long time read publicly in the churches, 
 and which by Origen and other teachers 
 was held to be one of the inspired 
 writings. 4. Ignatius, the bishop of 
 Antioch. 5. Poly carp, the bishop of 
 Smyrna. 6. Papias, bishop of Hierapo- 
 lis in Phrygia; a disciple of the apostle 
 John and a friend of Polycarp and, like 
 him and Ignatius, one of the early mar- 
 tyrs. 
 
 Of the other Church Fathers some 
 few only need be mentioned : Justin the 
 Martyr is the author of several books 
 in defense of the faith. Irenaeus was 
 a disciple of Polycarp, and became 
 bishop of the church in Lyons, where 
 he suffered death at the stake, in the 
 year 202. Tertullian of Carthage is the 
 first of the Fathers who wrote in the 
 Latin tongue. He was a learned and 
 
— 27 — 
 
 zealous man, but held some opinions for 
 which there is no warrant in the Bible. 
 He believed, for instance, in the coming 
 of a Millennium, in which the Savior 
 and his saints were to rule the world. 
 Cyprian was, like Tertullian, born in 
 Carthage of heathen parents. After 
 his conversion he became the bishop of 
 his native city. After having spent 
 some years in exile he returned to his 
 home and remained at his post of duty 
 until, as he himself said, "it pleased God 
 to give him the martyr's crown," in the 
 year 258. 
 
 In Alexandria was established a 
 school for the education of Christian 
 teachers and ministers. Of the teachers 
 in this school the most important are 
 Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen. 
 The latter became famous throughout 
 all Christendom for his learning and 
 piety. After having taught for 25 years 
 
— 28 — 
 
 in Alexandria he was, owing to a con- 
 troversy with his bishop, removed from 
 his position. He then went to Caesarea 
 in Palestine, where he founded a theo- 
 logical seminary. In 254, during the 
 persecution under the Emperor Decius, 
 he was put on the rack and tortured, as 
 a result of which he died after some 
 days of suffering. Origen has written 
 a surprisingly large number of books, 
 some of which contain doctrines that 
 are condemned by the word of God, 
 and have given rise to much controversy 
 in the church. 
 
 Next to Alexandria the great seat of 
 Christian learning was Antioch. The 
 most important of the later Fathers in 
 this city is Chrysostome, whose sermons 
 are still regarded as masterpieces of 
 pulpit oratory. In 397 he became the 
 patriarch in Constantinople. He preached 
 against the sins of high and low, and 
 
— 29 — 
 
 the empress, Eudoxia, became incensed 
 against him. He died in exile, in the 
 year 407. Thirty years later his body 
 was brought back to Constantinople, 
 and the emperor, Theodosius, kneeled 
 at its feet and did penance for the 
 wrongs done by his predecessors to this 
 holy man. 
 
 Of the later Church Fathers should 
 be mentioned Ambrose, bishop of 
 Milan, who is the author of the famous 
 hymn, Te Deum, still in use by all 
 Christendom; and Jerome of Dalmatia, 
 who made the Latin translation of the 
 Bible, generally known as the Vulgate. 
 
 6. ARIANISM AND ATHANASIUS. 
 
 In the beginning of the fourth century 
 there lived in Alexandria a priest 
 named Arius, who has been the cause of 
 much trouble to the church. Although 
 he called himself a Christian, he denied 
 
— 30 — 
 
 the central article of the Christian faith. 
 He declared that Jesus was not one with 
 the Father; but, like the other creatures, 
 had been created, and was different from 
 them only in being the first and best. 
 Before the time of Arius other heretics 
 had taught that Christ and the Holy 
 Ghost were not distinct persons of the 
 Godhead. This heresy brought on the 
 first of the so-called Trinitarian contro- 
 versies. Now Arius tried to explain 
 the mystery of the Trinity by denying 
 the divinity of the Second and Third 
 persons of the Godhead. Arius was 
 promptly expelled from the church by 
 his bishop, and his doctrine condemned; 
 but still he gained many adherents. His 
 principal opponent was Aihanasius, 
 afterward bishop of Alexandria. Atha- 
 nasius proved that the heresy of Arius 
 denied Christ as the Savior of the 
 world* The controversy on this point 
 
— 31 — 
 
 divided nearly all Christendom into two 
 hostile parties. This led the Emperor 
 Constantine to convene a general Church 
 Council at Nice, in the year 325. The 
 meeting was attended by 318 bishops, 
 and lasted two months. Arius was 
 condemned as a heretic and sent into 
 exile, and his writings were ordered to 
 be burned. The council adopted a con- 
 fession in which the divinity of Christ 
 is especially emphasized. 
 
 The controversy was not ended, how- 
 ever. Some of the friends of Arius tried 
 to effect a compromise by teaching that 
 Christ, to be sure, was true God, but 
 still not of equal dignity with the Father, 
 nor essentially one with him. Athanasius 
 never wavered in his staunch defense of 
 the true doctrine. He was several times 
 exiled, and as often recalled. He died 
 in 373. The church has honored him by 
 calling him the "Father of Orthodoxy. 1 ' 
 
— 32 — 
 
 In 381 a new church council at Con- 
 stantinople made some changes in the 
 confession which had been adopted at 
 Nice. These consist principally in addi- 
 tions defining the doctrine concerning the 
 Holy Ghost as being also one with the 
 Father and the Son. This amended con- 
 fession is the one which we now have un- 
 der the name of the Nicene Symbol. The 
 third of the so-called ecumenical, or com- 
 mon, symbols of the church, the Athan- 
 asian Symbol, was not written by Athan- 
 asius, but is called after him, because it 
 embodies his teachings and the general 
 results of the Trinitarian controversies. 
 The authorship, as well as the time when 
 it was written, is unknown. The most 
 probable view is that it dates from the 
 sixth century, and that the author is 
 Vigilius, bishop of Tapsus, who published 
 several treatises under the name of 
 Athanasius. 
 
— 33 — 
 
 • 7- AUGUSTINE AND THE PELAGIAN 
 CONTROVERSY. 
 
 In the early part of the fourth century 
 the orthodox church under the leader' 
 ship of Aurelius Augustine waged war 
 against Pelagianism. This heresy de- 
 rives its name from Pelagius, a British 
 monk, who had settled in Rome. He 
 denied the doctrine of the Bible concern- 
 ing original sin. Man did not, said he, 
 fall in Adam; many became sinners of 
 their own free choice, but all could of 
 their own will and strength do that 
 which is good, and thus earn salvation; 
 Christ was not the Redeemer, but only 
 a teacher and a model of virtue.— After 
 some time spent in Rome Pelagius car- 
 ried himself and his doctrine over to 
 Africa; and there he was met and de- 
 feated by Augustine, the then bishop at 
 Hippo; who in his defense of the true 
 faith against Pelagius and other heretics, 
 
— 34 — 
 
 more especially the so-called Donatists, 
 — became for all time the great teacher 
 of the western church. 
 
 Augustine was born at Tagaste, near 
 Carthage in Africa, Nov. 13, 353. He 
 was the son of a pagan father, who was 
 converted shortly before his death ; and a 
 Christian mother, Monica; a most excel- 
 lent and devout woman. She did not, 
 however, bring her infant son to baptism, 
 as she, like Emperor Constantine, had 
 the superstitious notion that one would 
 do best to postpone this rite until near 
 the hour of death. Augustine himself, 
 in his old age, wrote: "Had I been bap- 
 tized as a child, I would have escaped 
 the commission of many of my sins." 
 At the age of seventeen he went to 
 Carthage to study grammar and rhetoric. 
 Here he fell in with wicked companions, 
 and led a life of sensual pleasure. At 
 the same time he studied diligently and 
 
— 35 — 
 
 gave lectures on the art of oratory. In 
 383 he removed to Rome, and then to 
 Milan, where he the following year was 
 appointed teacher of rhetoric. His 
 mother, who in the mean time had be- 
 come a widow, followed him to Milan, 
 and continued to weep and pray for his 
 conversion. Augustine now began to 
 study the Bible, and he was diligent in 
 attending church in order to hear the 
 eloquent sermons of bishop Ambrose. 
 These made a deep impression on him; 
 and after many spiritual conflicts he be- 
 came a Christian, and was baptized on 
 Easter Eve., 387. A year later he went 
 back to Tagaste; and in 396 he was 
 ordained bishop of Hippo, an office 
 which he continued to hold until his 
 death in 430. Here it was that he 
 fought in defense of the truth against 
 Donatists and Pelagians. 
 
 The Donatists taught that the church 
 
— 36 — 
 
 could not be a holy institution, if it did 
 not succeed in ridding itself of all 
 hypocrites; and that the sacraments 
 were of no force, if the person who 
 administered them were not a true 
 believer. Against these, as well as 
 against the Pelagians, Augustine 
 triumphantly vindicated the true faith. 
 In doing this over against the Pelagians 
 he himself went wrong on one point. 
 In his zeal for the biblical doctrine that 
 man is saved by the grace of God alone 
 through faith, he taught not only that 
 some are predestinated to salvation 
 according to the gracious will of God, 
 but also that grace is irresistable, and 
 that some men have from eternity been 
 elected to eternal perdition. 
 
 A hundred years after the death of 
 Augustine the church councils at 
 Orange and Valencia formally con- 
 demned every manner of Pelagianism, 
 
— 37 — 
 
 and endorsed the teaching of Augustine 
 in regard to original sin and salvation 
 by grace alone. At the same time they 
 rejected his doctrine of predestination, 
 in so far as it implied the election of 
 some men to reprobation and perdition. 
 Among the works written by Augustine 
 are his Confessions, a large work in 
 thirteen books; and a great number of 
 treatises, sermons, and letters. His last 
 work is a book "On the City of God," 
 which is regarded as the greatest of all 
 his writings. 
 
 8. MONACHISM AND ASCETICISM. 
 
 Even in the very earliest Christian 
 churches there were men who practiced 
 what is called asceticism. They im- 
 agined that they could increase their 
 holiness by living alone in out-of-the- 
 way places, fasting, and renouncing all 
 
— 38 — 
 
 earthly enjoyments. They were called 
 Anchorites, or Hermits. They gave 
 all their property to the poor, renounced 
 marriage, and often inflicted awful tor- 
 tures on themselves. One of these 
 anchorites was Antonius of Egypt, who 
 has been called "the Father of Mona- 
 chism." He is said to have spent 86 
 years in the desert or among the 
 mountains. Twice in all this time he 
 visited the haunts of men. In the year 
 311 he went to Alexandria in order to 
 strengthen the many Christians who 
 were being executed, and in hopes of 
 sharing their fate. Some years later he 
 again visited the same city in order to 
 testify against the heresy of Arius. He 
 died in 356 at the age of 105 years. 
 His reputation for piety induced many 
 others to become anchorites. His dis- 
 ciple Pachomius was the first to gather 
 several of these into a community under 
 
— 39 — 
 
 one roof. The building was called a 
 cloister or monastery, and the man at 
 the head of the community was called 
 the prior. This is the origin of what is 
 known as Christian Monachism. 
 Women, also, soon followed the ex- 
 ample; and these were called nuns. 
 
 Monachism and asceticism at first 
 flourished especially in Egypt and Syria. 
 As one of the most famous of these 
 fanatics may be mentioned Simeon of 
 Syria, called Stylites. He built a high 
 column, on the top of which he spent 
 many years in order to raise himself 
 above earthly things and be nearer 
 heaven. 
 
 Monachism was brought into Europe 
 by Benedict of Nursia, who in the be- 
 ginning of the sixth century established 
 a monastery at Montecassino, and gave 
 the rules which afterward came to 
 govern all similar religious orders. 
 
— 40 — 
 
 Candidates for admission into these 
 homes were, after a preliminary trial, 
 called the novitiate, required to make the 
 three monastic vows: poverty, chastity, 
 and obedience. In the beginning the 
 monks did much good, no doubt. Many 
 of them became zealous and successful 
 missionaries. Later on, in the middle 
 ages, but too many of the numerous 
 monasteries became the home of debau- 
 chery; but still it should be remembered 
 that they were also, during the dark 
 ages of ignorance, the principal pre- 
 servers of literature and learning. 
 
II. THE CHURCH DURING THE 
 MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 i. THE FALSE PROPHET MOHAMMED. 
 
 FN THE sixth century there existed a 
 sad state of affairs in the churches 
 throughout the Roman empire. There 
 were many sects causing divisions and 
 offenses contrary to the sound doctrine. 
 But in the following century the situa- 
 tion became even still worse. There 
 was established a new religion, and this 
 captured whole countries and threatened 
 all Christendom. The inventor of this 
 new and impious religion was Moham- 
 med. He was born at Mecca, in Arabia, 
 in the year 570. When a young man he 
 travelled far and wide as a merchant, 
 
 and became acquainted with Judaism 
 
 41 
 
— 42- 
 
 and Christianity; and being himself an 
 enthusiast, he set about the task of in- 
 venting a new religion. According to 
 his own account he was one day in the 
 cave of Hira, when he saw in a dream 
 the angel Gabriel and heard himself 
 saluted as the prophet of God. After- 
 ward he had repeated visions, in which 
 the angel revealed to him the successive 
 chapters of the Mohammedan bible, the 
 Koran. These he committed to memory, 
 as he had not acquired the art of writing. 
 The Mohammedan religion is called 
 Islam, and its adherents are called Mus- 
 selmans, or Moslems. The doctrine of 
 Islam is: There is one God, and Mo- 
 hammed is his prophet. Moses and 
 Christ were great prophets, but inferior 
 to Mohammed. Man can, by his own 
 works, earn salvation; especially by pray- 
 ing, fasting, giving alms, and making 
 pilgrimages to Mecca and other holy 
 
— 43 — 
 
 places; and above all by fighting for the 
 extension of Islam. This religion pro- 
 hibits the use of wine and other intoxi- 
 cants, but permits polygamy. The para- 
 dise which it promises is a place of un- 
 bridled license and sensual enjoyment. 
 Mohammed died in the year 632. 
 
 Within a few years after the first ap- 
 pearance of Mohammed as a prophet his 
 religion had become the prevailing one 
 in all parts of Arabia. It was extended 
 by the aid of fire and sword, and con- 
 quered all the old Christian lands in Asia 
 and Africa. In these, as well as in Eu- 
 ropean Turkey, it is to this day the ruling 
 religion. 
 
 A hundred years after the death of 
 Mohammed a large army of the Sara- 
 cens, who had embraced his religion, in- 
 vaded Europe. Near Poitiers in France 
 they were met and defeated by Charles 
 Martel, king of the Franks. This is 
 
— 44 — 
 
 known as the battle of Tours, 732, and 
 is regarded as one of the decisive battles 
 in the world's history. 
 
 2. CHRISTIANITY VICTORIOUS THROUGH- 
 OUT EUROPE. 
 
 While the Christian religion was re- 
 placed by Mohammedanism in Asia and 
 Africa, it was making steady and rapid 
 progress in Europe, where the light of 
 the gospel gradually dispelled the dark- 
 ness of paganism. 
 
 The Goths were christianized in the 
 fourth century, especially through the 
 efforts of Bishop Ulfilas. He was, how- 
 ever, a disciple of Arius, and the Chris- 
 tianity which he taught was tainted with 
 Arianism. At the same time he did the 
 people a great service, as he translated 
 the Bible into their tongue. From the 
 Goths Christianity found its way to their 
 allied tribes, the Vandals, Burgundians, 
 
— 45 — 
 
 Lombards, and others. Arianisra was 
 soon stamped out among them. This 
 result was brought about largely through 
 Clovis, the first Christian king of the 
 Franks. In the year 496 he was bap- 
 tized, and then he set about to introduce 
 Christianity among his people. He ac- 
 cepted the orthodox catholic religion 
 from Rome, and made the Arianism of 
 the other Germanic tribes a pretext for 
 attacking them and making himself their 
 master. 
 
 The Christian religion had been 
 brought to England as early as the 
 second century. But when the Anglo- 
 Saxons, in 449, invaded and conquered 
 the country they killed or exiled the 
 older inhabitants, and re-established 
 paganism. It was a Benedictine monk, 
 Augustine, who became the "Apostle of 
 the Anglo-Saxons.'" In 596 he, with 
 forty other monks, was sent to England 
 
— 46 — 
 
 by Pope Gregory the Great, and they 
 were remarkably successful in their mis- 
 sion. The Anglo-Saxon clergy became 
 famous for their learning and piety, and 
 were above all others active in the work 
 of carrying the gospel to other lands. 
 
 Ireland had been christianized by 
 Saint Patrick in the middle of the fifth 
 century. This remarkable man was a 
 Scotchman by birth. In his youth he 
 had been sold as a slave in Ireland. Af- 
 ter some years he escaped and made his 
 way to Gaul, or France, and here he 
 was soon ordained a priest. Then he 
 returned to Ireland, where for 33 years 
 he labored zealously as a missionary. 
 He died March 17, 465, at the age of 
 93 years. Ireland became "the Island 
 of the Saints," and from its monasteries 
 there went forth many missionaries. 
 Scotland was christianized by the dis- 
 
— 47 — 
 
 ciples of Saint Patrick in the latter part 
 of the fifth century. 
 
 The most famous of the Anglo-Saxon 
 missionaries is Saint Winfrid Boniface, 
 who became the " Apostle of the 
 Germans." He was born near Exeter, 
 England, 680. In 716 he went to Ger- 
 many. Christianity had been preached 
 in the southern and western provinces, 
 but had not made much headway, and 
 Boniface labored to bring order out of 
 disorder in these districts, as well as to 
 introduce the gospel into the northern 
 and eastern provinces, where it was as 
 yet unknown. He placed himself under 
 the direction of the Roman pope, and 
 was by him appointed archbishop of 
 Mayence. From this place Boniface led 
 the work of organizing the German 
 church. When he was 74 years old he 
 resigned his position as archbishop in 
 order to go as a missionary to Friesland, 
 
— 48 — 
 
 in the country now known as Holland. 
 After laboring there one year with great 
 success he was attacked by a company 
 of barbarians, and killed, in the year 
 
 755- 
 
 The most powerful of the German 
 
 tribes, and the last to become Christians, 
 were the Saxons. They were still 
 pagans at the time when Boniface 
 suffered martyrdom. In the beginning 
 of the following century they were chris- 
 tianized by the emperor Charlemagne. 
 Much blood was spilled, however, in the 
 thirty years' war which he was obliged 
 to wage against the Saxons in order to 
 accomplish this result. But from that 
 time to this day Saxony has led the 
 world in Christian learning and in deeds 
 of Christian charity. From Saxony have 
 come the greatest of the champions of 
 the true faith. 
 
 The "Apostle, of the North" is Saint 
 
49 
 
 Ansgar, born in Picardy, in France, 801. 
 Harald Klak, king of Denmark, was 
 baptized in 826, while on a visit to Ger- 
 many for the purpose of securing as- 
 sistance in his wars against his rival 
 kings in Jutland. In return for this as- 
 sistance he promised to introduce Chris- 
 tianity into his country. Ansgar was 
 chosen to lead the work of conversion 
 among the Danes. He was zealous and 
 tireless, and accomplished much in a 
 short time. He founded a Christian 
 school in Heidaby, and built churches, 
 and preached, and endured many hard- 
 ships. When King Harald was driven 
 out of the country Ansgar was compelled 
 to follow him, but soon found another 
 field for his mission work. He went to 
 Sigtuna in Sweden, and there he labored 
 for two years with great success. He 
 was then made archbishop of Hamburg 
 and afterward of Bremen, and from these 
 
— 50 — 
 
 places he directed the work in the coun- 
 tries of the North. He died in 865 . : — 
 Shortly after this time Gorm the Old 
 became king of all Denmark. He was 
 a pagan and persecuted the Christians. 
 However, the German king, Henry the 
 Fowler, soon forced him to desist. Still 
 it was not until during the reign of 
 Canute the Great, in the beginning of 
 the eleventh century, that the Christian 
 religion became firmly established in 
 Denmark. 
 
 In Sweden there was a long struggle 
 between Christianity and paganism, and 
 the conversion of the Swedes cannot be 
 said to have been completed until the 
 middle of the twelfth century, under 
 King Inge Stenkilsson. 
 
 Norway was christianized by its own 
 kings with the assistance of the church 
 in England. The first Christian king 
 was Haakon the Good (936-961). He 
 
— 51 — 
 
 had been baptized in England, and made 
 some efforts to introduce the new re- 
 ligion into Norway; but they were not 
 successful. King Olaf Trygvason, who 
 reigned from 995 to 1000, persuaded and 
 forced the greater part of the people to 
 accept Christianity; and his work was 
 continued and concluded by King Olaf 
 Haraldson, also called Saint Olaf, who 
 died in 1030. Iceland, Greenland, the 
 Faeroe, and the Orkney Islands had been 
 colonized from Norway, and were chris- 
 tianized at the same time with the 
 mother country. 
 
 The Slavs of eastern Europe were 
 christianized during this same period — 
 the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries. 
 The two brothers Cyrillus and Metho- 
 dius have been called the " Apostles of 
 the Slavs." Most of the Slavonic tribes 
 were converted by missionaries from the 
 Eastern, or Greek, church, with its head- 
 
— 52 — 
 
 quarters at Constantinople, and have 
 never acknowledged the supremacy of 
 the pope of Rome. The Russians were 
 christianized in the early part of the 
 eleventh century by Grandduke Vladi- 
 mir and his son and successor Jaroslav. 
 
 3. POPERY. 
 
 We read in the Bible that as the dis- 
 ciples of the Christian faith increased in 
 numbers, the apostles ordained presby- 
 ters, or elders, in the several churches, 
 who were to be overseers and teachers 
 in the congregations committed to their 
 charge. They were also called bishops. 
 In order that these might devote their 
 whole time to their work as teachers, 
 there were appointed deacons, whose 
 duty it was to minister to the wants of 
 the sick and the poor. (The Acts 6, 
 1-6). In the course of time there came 
 to be a more and more sharp distinction 
 
-^53 — 
 
 between the clergy and the laity. Little 
 by little the number of offices in the 
 church increased. There were assistant 
 deacons; and lectors, whose duty it was 
 to preserve the sacred writings and 
 read them in the meetings; and cantors, 
 who were to lead in the singing of the 
 psalms. Then, again, there came to be 
 a difference of rank among the presby- 
 ters, or elders. In the larger churches 
 there usually were several of these; and 
 it naturally became necessary to select 
 one as chief among them; and this one 
 was distinguished from the others by 
 being called the bishop. Later on the 
 bishops in the capitals or largest cities 
 of the several provinces came to be 
 regarded as of higher rank than the 
 others, and were styled archbishops. 
 Then the archbishops in the five most 
 important centers, Rome, Constanti- 
 nople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusa- 
 
— 54 — 
 
 lem, were regarded as of greater dignity 
 than the rest, and assumed the title of 
 patriarchs. Finally, the patriarch in 
 Rome claimed to rank higher than all 
 the others, and insisted on being called 
 pope, (papa, i. e. the father of the whole 
 church). The only one of the patriarchs 
 who disputed the title of the Roman 
 bishop to the highest rank was the one 
 at Constantinople. This dispute at last 
 led to the division of the church into 
 two great bodies, the Roman Catholic 
 and the Greek Catholic. 
 
 There were many circumstances in 
 favor of the claim made by the Roman 
 bishop. Rome was the capital of the 
 world, "the Eternal City," from which 
 people in all lands had been accustomed 
 to receive orders. In Rome Peter and 
 Paul were believed to have labored and 
 suffered martyrdom. Furthermore, the 
 bishops in Rome had, as a rule, been 
 
— 55 — 
 
 men distinguished for their talents and 
 piety. As a result of these circum- 
 stances there had been a general dispo- 
 sition to accord them the highest 
 dignity in the church councils. After a 
 time, however, the Roman bishops were 
 not satisfied with this honor, but began 
 to claim a primacy over the church as a 
 divine right. Leo, called the Great, 
 who was bishop in Rome in the middle 
 of the fifth century, is the first who is 
 known to have made this claim in 
 express words and supported it with 
 argument. He declared, as do the 
 popes to this day, that the Lord himself 
 had appointed the apostle Peter ruler of 
 the church; and that the bishops of 
 Rome were the heirs and legitimate 
 successors of Peter, as this apostle had 
 founded the church in Rome and been 
 its first bishop. 
 
 The real founder of the papacy was 
 
— 56 — 
 
 Gregory the Great, 590-604. He not 
 only put forward his claim to be the 
 Vicar of Christ and the ruler of the 
 church, but he succeeded in having his 
 claim generally allowed by all Christian 
 lands. Gregory was in several respects 
 a remarkable man. He had inherited a 
 large estate. This he sold, aild devoted 
 the money to building monasteries, in 
 one of which he himself became a monk. 
 Then, after serving for some years as a 
 priest, he was, against his own protest, 
 elected bishop of Rome. He called 
 himself "the servant of the servants of 
 Chiist," and wanted no honors for him- 
 self personally; but insisted on and 
 defended the divine right. of the Roman 
 pope to be obeyed as the supreme ruler 
 of the whole Christian church. 
 
 The next man of importance in the 
 long list of popes is Nicholas I., in the 
 middle of the ninth century. He wrote 
 
— 57 — 
 
 and spoke much in defense of the fiction 
 that the pope is the direct successor of 
 Saint Peter. He compelled kings and 
 archbishops to humble themselves before 
 him and obey him. A disagreement 
 between him and the patriarch at Con- 
 stantinople eventually caused the schism 
 between the Roman and Greek churches, 
 which was formally declared in the 
 year 1054. 
 
 The first half of the tenth century 
 witnessed the lowest degradation of the 
 papacy. During this time two infamous 
 women ruled in Rome; and they placed 
 many of the partners of their infamy on 
 "the throne of Saint Peter." These 
 popes led scandalously wicked lives, and 
 all sorts of vices flourished in the papal 
 palace. When the German king, Otto 
 the Great, was crowned Roman emperor, 
 in 962, he put an end to this state of 
 affairs, and insisted that no pope should 
 
— 58 — 
 
 be elected without the emperor^s ap- 
 proval. Emperor Henry III., 1039-1056, 
 went still farther, and himself appointed 
 the pope without consulting the Roman 
 clergy. 
 
 The most remarkable man among all 
 the Roman popes is Gregory VII. His 
 name before he became pope was Hilde- 
 brand. He was born in Tuscany about 
 the year 1020; becanre a monk at Cluny; 
 was called to Rome, and was the chief 
 adviser of Pope Leo IX., by whom he 
 was made a cardinal. From this time 
 on Hildebrand virtually directed the af- 
 fairs of Italy and the church. Under 
 five successive popes he maintained con- 
 trol, until 1073, when he allowed him- 
 self to be elected the successor of Pope 
 Alexander II. Before this time, in 1058, 
 he had changed the manner of holding 
 the papal elections, placing them in the 
 hands of the cardinals. These were at 
 
— 59 
 
 that time the seven bishops in the Roman 
 province and the twenty-eight priests 
 and deacons of the princical churches in 
 Rome. In the year 1074 Hildebrand, 
 who now called himself Gregory VII., 
 published an order forbidding priests to 
 marry, and threatening with the ban of 
 the church all persons who received the 
 sacrament at the hands of a married 
 member of the clergy. Even Pope 
 Gregory, however, was not able to en- 
 force this rule everywhere. In the fol- 
 lowing year he called a council at Rome 
 which prohibited the interference of the 
 laity with the appointment of bishops or 
 other church officials. He thus freed the 
 church from the domination of the Ger- 
 man emperors, which a few years before 
 had been almost unquestioned. Emperor 
 Henry IV. thereupon called a diet at 
 Worms, and declared the pope deposed. 
 For this the pope punished him by ex- 
 
— 60 — 
 
 communication and by giving assistance 
 to his enemies, who were at the time 
 waging war against him. The emperor 
 was compelled to humble himself and 
 sue for pardon. He went to Italy; and 
 for three days in the dead of winter he 
 stood outside of the door of the papal 
 palace in Canossa, before the pope finally 
 admitted him and gave him absolution. 
 However, when the emperor had recov- 
 ered sufficient strength he marched an 
 army against Rome; and Pope Gregory 
 fled to Salerno, where he died in 1085. 
 Pope Gregory maintained that as head 
 of the church and as the vicar of Christ 
 he had absolute power and the right to 
 demand blind obedience from kings and 
 emperors as well as from all others. 
 Those who would not obey him were 
 excommunicated, he claiming the right 
 to exclude them from the church on 
 earth and to shut them out from heaven. 
 
— 61 — 
 
 Though it can not be said that Pope 
 Gregory VII. was a wicked and profligate 
 man in his private life, as many of the 
 other Roman bishops have been, yet 
 none has demonstrated more clearly than 
 he that the pope is the antichrist, of 
 whom the Bible speaks as "that man of 
 sin, the son of perdition; who opposeth 
 and exalteth himself above all that is 
 called God, or that is worshipped; so 
 that he as God sitteth in the temple of 
 God, shewing himself that he is God." 
 (n. Thess. 2, 3. 4). 
 
 The successors of Pope Gregory VII. 
 continued to fight for his idea, that all 
 earthly rulers derive their power from 
 the church. The climax seemed to have 
 been reached under Pope Innocence III., 
 1 198-12 16, who exalted himself above 
 church and state. All kings and rulers 
 were his servants. If they disobeyed 
 him, as did the English king, John Lack- 
 
— 62 — 
 
 land, he placed not only them but all 
 their subjects under the ban. This was 
 called the interdict; and while it lasted 
 the priests in the country under the ban 
 were not allowed to hold religious ser- 
 vices or adminster the sacraments to 
 others than such as were at the point of 
 death. Pope Innocence was not even 
 satisfied with being the spiritual ruler of 
 all Christendom, but also made himself 
 the sovereign of the States of the Church 
 in Italy. 
 
 However, pope Boniface VIII., 1294- 
 1303, went even still farther. He an- 
 nounced, as an article of faith, that belief 
 in the supreme power and infallibility 
 of the pope was necessary to salvation. 
 He published an order forbidding the 
 clergy to pay any tax on church prop- 
 erty, and thus became involved in a 
 quarrel with King Philip the Fair of 
 France; and this finally resulted in the 
 
— 63 — 
 
 decline of the papal power. Philip be- 
 sieged and imprisoned Pope Boniface 
 and forced his successor, Pope Clemens 
 V., to remove from Rome to Avignon in 
 France, which city remained the resi- 
 dence of the popes for the next seventy 
 years. This period of humilation for 
 the popes is known as their Babylonian 
 Captivity. At the end of this period 
 there was a division in the church itself; 
 and there were elected two popes, one 
 in Avignon and one in Rome, who ex- 
 communicated each other. 
 
 From this time on for more than a 
 hundred years the popes were, as a rule, 
 men who were notorious by reason of 
 their crimes and wickedness. The worst 
 among them, probably, was Alexander 
 VI., the father of the infamous Ccesar and 
 Lucretia Borgia. According to an im- 
 partial historian the character of this 
 "holy Father" was a "compound of 
 
— 64 — 
 
 cruelty, treachery, licentiousness and 
 other vices.' 7 
 
 4. SUPERSTITIONS AND HERESIES 
 OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. 
 
 During the dark ages, while popery 
 flourished, an ever increasing number of 
 superstitions and heresies gained a foot- 
 hold in the Roman church. The so- 
 called traditions of the church were 
 made the rule of faith, and were sup- 
 posed to be of at least equal authority 
 with the Bible. To the members of the 
 laity, and to many of the clergy as well, 
 the Bible was a sealed book. The 
 greatest stress was laid on doctrines of 
 human invention, which were intended 
 to enhance the power of the pope and 
 of the priesthood. Instead of the two 
 sacraments instituted by the Savior, the 
 church counted seven sacraments : 
 Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, 
 
— 65 — 
 
 Penance, Order, Matrimony, and Ex- 
 treme Unction. In connection with the 
 Eucharist, or Sacrament of the Altar, 
 the Roman church had introduced the 
 idolatrous sacrifice of the mass. It 
 taught and teaches that the bread and 
 wine are changed into the body and 
 blood of Christ, and remain his body 
 and blood as long as the form remains 
 unchanged; that is, as long as they to 
 the touch, taste, etc., seem to be 
 bread and wine. From the beginning 
 of the thirteenth century it became 
 the rule that the lay people did not 
 receive the wine at all. The excuse 
 offered for this was and is that the body 
 of Christ is received entire under the 
 form of the bread, and that hence the 
 cup of wine is not really necessary. 
 
 Purgatory is another invention of the 
 Roman church, which teaches that there 
 is a place in which the souls of those 
 
— 66 — 
 
 who die in the state of grace suffer for 
 a time, either on account of venial sin, 
 or on account of the temporal punish- 
 ment due to mortal sins which have 
 been forgiven. The souls detained in 
 purgatory may be helped out of this 
 place of torment by the prayers of the 
 faithful and especially by those of the 
 priest. The saying of the mass for the 
 souls supposed to be in purgatory has 
 been an important part of the business 
 of the Roman priests, and furnished 
 them with a large part of their income. 
 The Roman church gradually left the 
 old truth in regard to the relation be- 
 tween faith and works, and began to 
 teach that man can himself expiate for 
 his sins by penances and good deeds, 
 especially by fasting, giving alms, and 
 making pilgrimages to the Holy Land 
 or to Rome. It also became common 
 to offer worship and prayer to the saints, 
 
-67 — 
 
 the chief of whom was and is the Virgin 
 Mary. She holds a peculiar position in 
 the Roman Catholic church, which has 
 invented the fictions that she did not 
 have upon her even the stain of original 
 sin; and that her body was not allowed 
 to decay in the grave, but was taken to 
 heaven immediately after her death. 
 
 In connection with the worship of the 
 saints the church had a superstitious 
 veneration for relics brought back by 
 pilgrims from the Holy Land. In the 
 dark days of ignorance an enormous 
 number and variety of such relics were 
 imposed on the people. There were 
 splints of the true cross, pieces of cloth- 
 ing supposed to have been worn by the 
 Virgin Mary, hairs from the beard of 
 Saint Peter, and even a bottle of the 
 darkness which overspread Egypt at the 
 time of Moses. 
 
 Of the many other heresies or abuses 
 
— 68 — 
 
 of the Roman church only one need be 
 mentioned. It is especially important 
 for the reason that it is the one against 
 which the Reformation directed its first 
 attack. This was the sale of indul- 
 gences. Strictly speaking the church 
 did not claim to be able to sell forgive- 
 ness of sins, but only exemption from 
 certain penalties. Many priests did, 
 however, actually pretend to sell for- 
 giveness; and people generally under- 
 stood that this was what they were 
 buying, and paid great sums into the 
 treasury of the church in order to 
 secure forgiveness of their sins without 
 the trouble of repenting and renouncing 
 their wickedness. 
 
 5. THE CRUSADES. 
 
 By the crusades are meant the wars 
 carried on by the Christians of the 
 Middle Ages for the recovery of 
 
— 69 — 
 
 Palestine from the Mohammedans. 
 These wars have a close connection with 
 the superstitions of the Roman church. 
 From a very early period pilgrimages 
 to the Holy Land had been made. In 
 the year 1065 Palestine was conquered 
 by the Turks, and these inflicted all 
 sorts of indignities on the Christian pil- 
 grims. Peter the Hermit, a French 
 monk, who visited Palestine and saw 
 the cruelties practiced by the Turks, re- 
 ported what he had seen to Pope Urban 
 II., and was by him encouraged to travel 
 through France and Italy and induce 
 Christians to begin a crusade. All 
 classes were stirred with fanatic enthusi- 
 asm. At a council held at Clermont, 
 where the pope himself was present, a 
 crusade was resolved on. •' This was in 
 the year 1095. At this time four armies, 
 or rather disorderly mobs, had already 
 set out for the Holy Land. The first, 
 
— 70 — 
 
 consisting of 20,000 men, was almost 
 entirely destroyed during the march 
 through Bulgaria. The second consisted 
 of 40,000 men, women, and children un- 
 der Peter the Hermit. They succeeded 
 in crossing over into Asia Minor, where 
 they were utterly routed by the Turks 
 at Nice. The two other bands, one of 
 15,000 Germans and one of no less than 
 200,000 persons from England, France, 
 and other countries, were destroyed by 
 the way, in Hungary. Then it was that 
 a crusade began which promised success. 
 Six armies under the command of trained 
 soldiers set out for the Holy Land. At 
 Constantinople they united and then 
 crossed over into Asia Minor. Here 
 they captured Nice and other places, and 
 marched into Syria; and after a siege 
 lasting seven months they took the city 
 of Antioch, and were in their turn be- 
 sieged by an army of 200,000 Moham- 
 
— 71 — 
 
 medans. These were finally defeated, 
 and the way opened to Jerusalem. In the 
 meantime the army of 600,000 crusaders 
 had dwindled to not more than 40,000. 
 
 In the summer of 1099 they laid siege 
 to Jerusalem. The city was captured, 
 and the leader of the crusaders, Godfrey 
 of Bouillon, was elected King of Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 This Christian kingdom maintained 
 itself against the attacks of the Moham- 
 medans for almost fifty years, when the 
 Turks again began to gain the upper 
 hand. This brought on the second great 
 crusade, which was instigated by Saint 
 Bernard of Clairvaux. Two armies, 
 numbering more than a million men, 
 started for Jerusalem under the com- 
 mand of King Louis VII. of France 
 and Emperor Conrad III. of Germany. 
 Neither of these armies succeeded in 
 reaching their destination. 
 
— 72 — 
 
 The third crusade was begun in 1 187, 
 when the Sultan of Egypt had captured 
 Jerusalem. This crusade was led by 
 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Ger- 
 many, King Philippe Auguste of France, 
 and King Richard the Lionhearted of 
 England. The emperor died on the way, 
 and the two kings had a serious quarrel 
 among themselves, and finally ended the 
 crusade by a treaty with the Sultan, who 
 agreed to impose no taxes on Christian 
 pilgrims. 
 
 The fourth crusade was ordered by 
 Pope Innocence III., in 1203. It set out, 
 but never reached Palestine at all. 
 
 In 1228 emperor Frederick II. of Ger- 
 many commanded a fifth crusade, and 
 was successful in making himself master 
 of Palestine and being crowned king of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Eleven years later the Turks again 
 captured Jerusalem, and a sixth crusade 
 
— 73 — 
 
 was undertaken, under the Count of 
 Champagne. This, also, was successful; 
 the Mohammedans again surrendered 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 In 1244 Jerusalem was pillaged and 
 burned by a new band of Turks, and a 
 seventh crusade was organized, and set 
 out in 1249 under the command of king 
 Louis IX. of France. He was defeated 
 and taken prisoner by the Sultan of 
 
 Egypt- 
 King Louis obtained his freedom by 
 
 the payment of a large ransom; and 
 then, in 1270, he undertook the eighth 
 and last of the crusades. He himself 
 died of the plague before reaching the 
 Holy Land, and Prince Edward, after- 
 ward King Edward I. of England, took 
 command of the army, but accomplished 
 nothing of importance. In the summer 
 of 1272 he returned to Europe with the 
 last of the crusaders, since which time 
 
— 74 — 
 
 the Mohammedans have remained in un- 
 disturbed possession of the Holy Land* 
 In connection with these crusades 
 should be mentioned what has been 
 called the Children^ Crusade, one of 
 the most pathetic events in all history. 
 In the year 12 12 religious fanaticism 
 had reached such a height that three 
 armies of young children from France 
 and Germany, numbering altogether not 
 less than 70,000, were allowed to set out 
 for the Holy Land. It was expected 
 that the Mediterranean would open a 
 path for them, as did the Red Sea for 
 the Israelites, and that they would 
 capture Jerusalem without striking a 
 blow. The expedition was utterly de- 
 stroyed; many of the children died on 
 the march, others were lost at sea, and 
 the rest were captured and sold into 
 slavery among the tribes in Northern 
 Africa. 
 
—.75 — 
 
 6. THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 
 
 In the history of the church, as well 
 as of the world in general, during the 
 Middle Ages the monastic orders play 
 an important part. The cloisters, or 
 monasteries, had little by little acquired 
 large estates and great wealth, and all 
 Christian lands fairly swarmed with 
 monks, with black friars and gray friars 
 and other friars of every description. 
 Many of the monasteries,which had been, 
 and were supposed to be, schools of piety 
 and self-denial, entirely lost this charac- 
 ter, and the monks in but too many cases 
 were well-fed and lazy persons who led 
 a life of ease and pleasure. 
 
 The first monastic order, or congre- 
 gation, was that of the Cluniacs, founded 
 in Clugny, Burgundy, in 910, by Duke 
 William of Aquitaine. This convent at 
 Clugny became very rich, but afterward 
 
— 76 — 
 
 fell into decay. It was finally closed at 
 the time of the French Revolution, to- 
 ward the close of the eighteenth century. 
 Many of its rare and valuable books are 
 now in the National Library at Paris, 
 and in the British Museum at London. 
 The second, and more celebrated, of 
 the monastic orders is that of the Cister- 
 cians, or Bernardines. Their first mo- 
 nastery, or abbey, was at Citeaux in 
 France, and was founded in 1098. But 
 the order did not flourish ijntil some 
 fifteen years later, when it was joined by 
 St. Bernard of Clairveaux, a Burgundian 
 nobleman, famous for his learning and 
 piety. The members of this order were 
 long celebrated for religious zeal and 
 asceticism. They slept little and worked 
 hard, and fasted much of the time. Af- 
 ter a hundred years they had nearly two 
 thousand monasteries and nunneries. 
 There were a hundred of these in Eng- 
 
— 77 — 
 
 land when they were closed by King 
 Henry VIII. at the time of the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 The number of monastic orders be- 
 came so great, and the troubles and 
 rivalries between them so notorious and 
 scandalous, that Pope Innocence III., in 
 12 1 5, forbade the establishment of any 
 new orders. However, there were at 
 about this time founded two new orders 
 which shortly became more powerful 
 than all the others together. These two 
 were the congregations of the so-called 
 Mendicant Friars, the Dominicans 
 and the Franciscans. The first of 
 these orders is named after Dominicus, 
 a Spaniard, whose idea it was that the 
 members were to travel about and hold 
 religious revivals and stamp out all 
 manner of " heresies." These monks 
 were usually known as the black friars. 
 The order of Franciscans was founded 
 
— 78 — 
 
 by an Italian named Franciscus. It laid 
 special stress on the poverty of its 
 members, who dressed in cloaks of 
 coarse gray cloth, and traveled bare- 
 foot from place to place, begging their 
 way, and preaching repentance. They 
 were called gray friars. 
 
 In the course of time the Dominicans 
 and Franciscans became "the wheels 
 under the chariot in which the church 
 rode on to victory." They were the 
 teachers of the people and of the priest- 
 hood, the confessors of the princes and 
 nobles, and the principal props of popery 
 with all its heresies and abuses. 
 
 7. THE GENERAL CHURCH COUNCILS. 
 
 In the fifteenth century there were 
 held three great general church councils 
 which may be said to have prepared the 
 way for the downfall of popery. The 
 popes of Rome had assumed absolute 
 
— 79 — 
 
 control of the church, and claimed to 
 stand above all authority. Now the 
 old idea again began to prevail that the 
 pope, while being the chief bishop of 
 the whole church, still owed obedience 
 and was responsible to the general 
 councils, or meetings of the church by 
 its bishops and other representatives. 
 The man who first made himself espe- 
 cially famous by advocating this view 
 was John Gerson, the chancellor of the 
 University of Paris. As a result of his 
 work a general church council was 
 called to meet at Pisa, in the year 
 1409, to reform the church " in its 
 head and its members." There were at 
 that time two men, each of whom 
 claimed to be the duly elected pope, 
 and the first business of the council was 
 to settle this troublesome affair. In 
 order to do this the council deposed the 
 two popes and elected a new one, 
 
— 80 — 
 
 Alexander V. The others, however, 
 refused to yield, and so the only result 
 was that the church had three popes 
 instead of two. 
 
 Alexander soon died, and was re- 
 placed by Pope John XXIII., a man most 
 infamous by reason of his many vices 
 and crimes. Through the efforts of 
 Gerson this pope was compelled to call 
 a new general council, which met in the 
 city of Constance and lasted four 
 years. After much trouble the breach 
 was healed; Pope John and one of the 
 other two were deposed; and the third 
 resigned in order to avoid sharing their 
 fate. Then some members of the 
 council urged the importance of reform- 
 ing certain notorious abuses in the 
 church, while other members insisted 
 that a new pope must first be elected. 
 These latter carried their point. 
 Martin V. was elected, and then he 
 
— 81 — 
 
 made haste to dissolve the council before 
 any of the proposed reforms could be 
 discussed. 
 
 In 1 43 1 a general council was con- 
 vened at Basel, and met from time to 
 time, and was not finally dissolved until 
 1443. This council began well, trying 
 to reform the pope by limiting his 
 power. Naturally, the pope did not like 
 this, and so he ordered the removal of 
 the council to Florence, where he would 
 be the better able to control it. Some 
 members refused to obey this order, and 
 continued their meetings in Basel. The 
 pope then excommunicated them ; and 
 they deposed him, and elected a new 
 pope. But the church did not again 
 want two popes; and so the one chosen 
 at Basel never gained any foothold. The 
 council at last adjourned without having 
 accomplished anything. 
 
 All these councils were marked 
 
— 82 — 
 
 failures. The popes in the latter half of 
 the fifteenth century were more notorious 
 than any of their predecessors for their 
 wickedness; and the abuses in the 
 church became worse than ever before. 
 The trouble was that the councils 
 wished only to correct some of the 
 abuses in the government of the church, 
 and made no attempt to reach the root 
 of the evil — the many false doctrines 
 which were taught in defiance of the 
 Word of God. 
 
 8. THE REFORMERS BEFORE THE 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 From time to time there appeared 
 men who tried to lead the church back 
 to the truths of the gospel. In the 
 twelfth century Peter Waldes of Lyons, 
 in France, had the four Gospels and 
 other books of the Bible translated into 
 French, and then formed a society for 
 
— 83 — 
 
 the spread of the biblical truths. The 
 pope refused him and his friends permis- 
 sion to preach; but they declared that 
 they "ought to obey God rather than 
 men;" for which reason they were 
 excommunicated and persecuted. They 
 gained many adherents; and the Wal- 
 denses exist to this day as a protestant 
 sect in the southern districts of France. 
 
 To deal with these persons and others 
 who defied his authority, the pope in 
 1232 established the infamous Inquisi- 
 tion; that is, church courts for the trial 
 of persons accused or suspected of 
 "heresy." Thousands upon thousands 
 of the Waldenses, and later on of other 
 "heretics," were murdered. The Inqui- 
 sition, which was under the control of 
 the Dominican monks, became the 
 bloodiest chapter in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 Another who, in a sense, may be 
 
— 84 — 
 
 called one of the forerunners of the 
 Reformation is Thomas A. Ke?n-pis, 
 who was born in 1380 near Cologne. 
 His book on "The Imitation of Christ" 
 has been translated into all languages in 
 which books are printed, and is said to 
 have been more widely circulated than 
 any other book, excepting only the 
 Bible. 
 
 yohn Wyclif, born in Yorkshire, 
 England, about the year 1320, has 
 been called "the morning-star of the 
 Reformation." He was for some years 
 a professor in Oxford University, and 
 was afterward appointed chaplain to 
 King Edward III. He wrote many 
 books and tracts attacking the heresies 
 of the Roman church, and declared that 
 the pope was the antichrist. Wyclif 
 had many supporters, who were called 
 the Lollards. He was excommunicated 
 as a dangerous heretic by Pope 
 
— 85 — 
 
 Gregory XL, but owing to the number 
 and strength of his friends he escaped 
 death at the stake. He died in 1384. 
 Thirty years later the Council at Con- 
 stance ordered his bones removed from 
 consecrated ground; but the order was 
 not obeyed until in 1428, when at the 
 command of Pope Clement VIII. they 
 were exhumed and burned, and the 
 ashes thrown into a river near Oxford. 
 The most important work of Wyclif 
 was that of translating the Bible into 
 English. 
 
 yohn Huss, who was born in or about 
 the year 1369, and became a preacher 
 and a professor in the University of 
 Prague, is even still more important than 
 is Wyclif as one of the Reformers before 
 the Reformation. He had read the 
 writings of the English reformer, and 
 preached the gospel to large audiences 
 at Prague in the Bohemian language. 
 
— 86 — 
 
 He denounced the abuses and false 
 doctrines in the Roman church, and es- 
 pecially attacked the sale of indulgences. 
 For this he was condemned and excom- 
 municated by the pope, and a ban placed 
 on the city which received him within 
 its walls. He himself appealed to the 
 council at Constance. Provided with 
 a safeguard from Emperor Sigismund 
 he went to this city and was present 
 when the council opened. But shortly 
 afterward he was thrown into prison 
 and put in chains. On June 5, 141 5, he 
 was brought before the council and urged 
 to deny the truths which he had preached. 
 This he refused to do. On July 6 he 
 was sentenced, and on the same day 
 burned at the stake, and his ashes thrown 
 into the Rhine. The following year his 
 friend and disciple, Jerome of Prague, 
 who had been a student at Oxford, and 
 had brought the writings of Wyclif over 
 
— 87 — 
 
 to Bohemia, was also sentenced and 
 burned at the stake on the spot where 
 Huss had suffered death. The Hussites, 
 as they were called, became numerous 
 in Bohemia, and the attempts to destroy 
 them brought on a bloody war, 14 19- 
 1436, Later they formed a church 
 society, which now has its headquarters 
 in Hernhut, Saxony, and is known as the 
 society of United Brethren. 
 
 Girolamo Savonarola is another, and 
 the last of the Reformers before the 
 Reformation. He was a Dominican 
 monk and became, about the year 1490, 
 a popular preacher in Florence, Italy. 
 He attacked tyranny and vice in the 
 church and in the state, and especially 
 denounced the shameful wickedness of 
 Pope Alexander VI. He wrote letters 
 to foreign kings urging them to dethrone 
 this monster and elect a new pope. In 
 1498 he was arrested, with two of his 
 
— 88 — 
 
 brethren, and tortured until almost dead ; 
 but he could not be induced to make 
 any confession of guilt. The pope or- 
 dered his execution, and on May 23, 
 1498, Savonarola and the other two 
 monks were hanged and then burned, 
 and their ashes thrown into the Arno. 
 
 The invention of the art of printing 
 with movable type, and the new birth of 
 learning, following upon the dark night 
 of the Middle Ages, should also be re- 
 membered as circumstances which, in 
 the providence of God, paved the way 
 for the Lutheran Reformation, with 
 which Modern History begins. 
 
III. THE CHURCH IN MODERN 
 TIMES. 
 
 i. THE CHURCH REFORMATION BY 
 MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 TN this compend of church history the 
 life of MartinLuther can be given only 
 in briefest outline. But every student 
 of history, and especially every Lutheran, 
 should read at least one of the many 
 biographies which have been written of 
 this man of God, who was chosen as the 
 instrument for the reformation of the 
 church, and who turned the current of 
 the world's history into a new channel. 
 Martin Luther was born November 
 10, 1483, at Eisleben, Saxony. His 
 parents were Hans and Margaret Luther, 
 who had their home in the town of 
 
— 90 — 
 
 Mansfeld. At the time when Martin 
 Luther was born, and during the years 
 of his childhood, his parents were poor; 
 but later on their circumstances were 
 bettered, and his father was a member 
 of the town council. They were severe 
 in their discipline, and their son was at 
 an early age taught to read and to work. 
 When fourteen years old, he was sent to 
 a high school in Magdeburg, and the 
 following year to Eisenach. After the 
 custom of other poor students he here 
 in part supported himself by singing at 
 the doors of citizens. He had much 
 musical talent and a pleasing voice, and 
 the pious wife of Conrad Cotta became 
 interested in the boy and gave him a 
 home in her house. In 1591 Luther 
 became a student in the University of 
 Erfurt. His father wanted him to be- 
 come a lawyer; but this was not to be. 
 He had begun to be a diligent reader of 
 
— 91 — 
 
 the Bible, which he had found in the 
 university library, and this gave his 
 mind a strong bent toward the study of 
 theology. A deep conviction of sin was 
 forced upon him, and in hopes of finding 
 peace he, in 1505, entered the August- 
 inian monastery. Here he spent two 
 years, rigidly observing all the severe 
 rules. His spare time he devoted to the 
 study of the Bible and the Church 
 Fathers; but he was not able to find rest 
 for his soul. He was afraid of God, un- 
 til a pious old monk gave him courage 
 and comfort by calling his attention to 
 the Bible passage which declares that 
 "the just by faith shall live." 
 
 In 1507 Luther was ordained a priest 
 and began to preach in Wittenberg, and 
 in the following year he was called to a 
 professorship in philosophy at the Wit- 
 tenberg University. After a year in 
 this work he was called to the Uni- 
 
— 92 — 
 
 versity of Erfurt, but soon returned to 
 Wittenberg and became Professor of 
 Theology. His study of the Bible and 
 of the writings of St. Augustine showed 
 its influence in his lectures and sermons. 
 He laid great stress on the central truth, 
 that a sinner is justified before God for 
 Christ's sake by faith alone. 
 
 In 151 1 he made a journey to Rome 
 on business connected with the August- 
 inian order, and his eyes were opened to 
 some of the wickedness of "the holy 
 city." On his way home he was taken 
 ill; then it was that he, according to his 
 own statement, at last found peace in the 
 truth that the righteous by faith shall 
 live. Shortly after his return to Witten- 
 berg he became Doctor of Theology, 
 after which he also was made one of the 
 vicars of the Augustinian order, and as 
 such visited and supervised the eleven 
 convents under his charge. 
 
— 93 — 
 
 The Reformation by Luther began 
 October 31, 1517. Pope Leo X. needed 
 money for the completion of the great 
 church of St. Peter in Rome. For this 
 purpose he arranged the sale of in- 
 dulgences on a large scale. His agent 
 for Germany was Archbishop Albert of 
 Mayence, who was himself in need of 
 money and was to have a share of the 
 proceeds. Among the district agents 
 appointed by the archbishop was John 
 Tetzel, a Dominican monk. This man 
 had a more than shady reputation, but 
 was a master of his business. He es- 
 tablished a booth for the sale of in- 
 dulgences near the border of Saxony, 
 the Elector having issued an order for- 
 bidding him to enter his territory. 
 Tetzel made much money; and when 
 the great chests of coin were brought to 
 Rome, the Romans laughed and said: 
 "Here come the sins of the Germans." 
 
— 94 — 
 
 Among the persons who confessed to 
 Luther as their priest were many who 
 had visited Tetzel and bought forgive- 
 ness, and who therefore thought that 
 they had no need of repentance. Luther 
 preached against this wickedness and 
 protested to the bishops, but in vain. 
 For the purpose of having a public dis- 
 cussion of the matter he then, October 
 31, 15 1 7, nailed to the door of the castle 
 church in Wittenberg his ninety-five 
 theses against the sale of indulgences, 
 and offered to defend his position public- 
 ly against any person or persons whom- 
 soever. The theses were moderate in 
 tone, and Luther had no thought of at- 
 tacking the pope and church. But in 
 less than two weeks his theses were 
 known throughout all Germany. Every- 
 where they found advocates of the 
 doctrine which they contained, that for- 
 giveness and salvation are not to be had 
 
— 95 — 
 
 without repentance and faith. Tetzel 
 and his friends complained to the pope, 
 and Luther was ordered to appear in 
 Rome within sixty days. But his 
 staunch friend and supporter, the Elector 
 Frederick the Wise of Saxony, demanded 
 that he be tried in Germany; and so 
 Luther, in October, 15 18, appeared be- 
 fore the papal legate Cajetan at Augs- 
 burg. No agreement was reached. 
 Luther refused to deny the truth; but 
 later on he was persuaded to promise 
 that he would hold his peace, if his op- 
 ponents would do likewise. 
 
 The breach widened, however, in 
 1 5 19, when Luther held a public dispu- 
 tation at Leipzic against Dr. Eck and 
 attacked many of the abuses of the 
 Roman church. The following year he 
 was excommunicated by the pope and 
 his writings ordered to be burned. 
 Luther replied to this by burning the 
 
— 96 — 
 
 papal letter in the presence of his stu- 
 dents near one of the gates of Witten- 
 berg. 
 
 Emperor Charles V. of Germany was 
 a bitter enemy of the Reformation. He 
 cited Luther to appear before him at 
 the Diet of Worms, in 1521. Many of 
 Luther's friends tried to dissuade him 
 from going, and reminded him of the 
 fate of John Huss at Constance; but he 
 declared that nothing should keep him 
 from going to Worms and giving an 
 account of his faith. His journey created 
 intense excitement. In the villages 
 through which he passed people gathered 
 from far and near to see the brave monk 
 who had defied the pope and all the 
 world. He was accompanied by his 
 friends Justus Jonas, Nickolas Amsdorf, 
 and Jerome Schurf. On April 17 and 
 18 he appeared before the Diet of 
 Worms, in which sat the emperor, the 
 
— 97 — 
 
 papal legates, a large number of dukes 
 and other nobles, archbishops, and dele- 
 gates from nearly all countries of Europe. 
 He was urged to recant (that is, take 
 back) that which he had written against 
 the church, and he asked and received 
 permission to give his final answer on 
 the following day. When he again ap- 
 peared before the Diet he admitted that 
 he had in his books made use of some 
 rather strong expressions, but in all 
 things essential he had spoken and 
 written nothing but the truth. The em- 
 peror demanded of Luther a direct 
 answer to the question whether or not 
 he would recant. Luther then said: 
 "Since you want a plain answer I will 
 give one which has neither horns nor 
 teeth. Except I be convinced by the 
 holy scripture or by clear arguments, I 
 neither can nor will recant; for it is not 
 wise to do anything contrary to one's 
 
— 98 — 
 
 conscience. Here I stand. I can not do 
 otherwise. God help me. Amen." 
 
 Luther was outlawed, but was per- 
 mitted to leave Worms. On his way 
 home, however, he was seized by friends 
 in disguise and carried to the Wartburg 
 Castle at Eisenach for security. Here 
 he spent nearly a year, employing him- 
 self in preparing various works for publi- 
 cation and beginning his translation of 
 the Bible into German. In the meantime 
 there occurred a fanatical outbreak at 
 Wittenberg. Professor Carlstadt and 
 certain other revolutionary zealots known 
 as the Prophets from Zwickau had 
 gone beyond all bounds in their attacks 
 on the established order of things in the 
 . church, and Luther felt that his presence 
 was necessary. He reached Wittenberg 
 March 5, 1522, and preached every day 
 against these fanatics and succeeded in 
 quelling the disorder in that city. But 
 
— 99 — 
 
 in other places it became worse than 
 ever. Thomas Muenzer, who was the 
 head and front of the Zwickau Prophets, 
 traveled from place to place and urged 
 the peasants to rise in rebellion and rid 
 themselves of their oppressors in the 
 church and the state. The result was 
 the Peasants'* War ) which began in 
 Swabia and spread to many parts of the 
 German empire. For a year the peasants 
 pillaged and burned castles and churches, 
 while Luther denounced them as persons 
 who "under pretense of zeal for the 
 gospel were serving the devil." In 1525 
 they were defeated in a bloody battle at 
 Frankenhausen, and peace was restored. 
 Luther had resumed his duties in the 
 university, besides which he wrote and 
 published treatises and sermons and 
 hymns, and completed his translation of 
 the Bible. In 1523 he began his work 
 for the reformation of the public church 
 
 LofC. 
 
— 100 — 
 
 services and for the better education of 
 the people. During the plague at 
 Wittenberg, in 1527, when the uni- 
 versity was removed for a time to Jena, 
 he published new volumes of sermons 
 and began work on his two Catechisms, 
 both of which were published in 1529. 
 The "large" catechism was written 
 first, and then the short catechism for 
 children. The amount of work which 
 Luther accomplished between the years 
 1520 and 1530 is astounding. He 
 labored all the time with tireless energy. 
 Among his able and faithful assistants 
 Philip Melanchton occupies first place. 
 Melanchton was fourteen years younger 
 than Luther, and was, like him, a pro- 
 fessor in Wittenberg. Melanchton was 
 famed for his piety and great learning, 
 and has been called "the Teacher of 
 Germany." He assisted Luther in trans- 
 lating the Bible and was his dear and 
 
— 101 — 
 
 faithful friend. In natural temperament 
 the two men were very unlike. Luther 
 was a perfectly fearless and energetic 
 man of action, while Melanchton was 
 a mild-mannered and rather timid man 
 with a retiring disposition. 
 
 In 1529 was held at Spires, in Bavaria, 
 the famous diet, in which the friends of 
 the Reformation for the first time were 
 called Protestants. 
 
 The Augsburg Confession, which is 
 the principal confession of the Lutheran 
 church, was written by Melanchton. It 
 was signed by the Lutheran princes of 
 Germany and by others, and delivered 
 to the emperor at the Diet of Augsburg, 
 in 1530. During the diet Luther re- 
 mained at Coburg, following with close 
 attention the proceedings in Augsburg, 
 giving Melanchton advice from day to 
 day, and reading the Confession, with 
 which he declared himself fully satisfied, 
 
— 102 — 
 
 adding that he could not have written it 
 as well as his friend had done it. 
 
 The Confession had been written in 
 both German and Latin; and the Ger- 
 man copy was, by Dr. Bayer, one of the 
 chancellors of Saxony, read out to the 
 emperor, the members of the diet, and 
 a great throng of other people. It made 
 a profound impression. But the emperor 
 was determined not to yield. He ordered 
 Dr. Eck to write a "confutation" of the 
 protestant Confession; and this was 
 done. The document was read, and 
 was generally admitted to be weak and 
 to "confute" nothing of that which 
 Melanchton had written. The emperor, 
 however, would listen to no further 
 argument. He declared that the " con- 
 futation" expressed the opinion by which 
 he would abide, and demanded that the 
 other princes endorse this opinion. 
 During the progress of the diet 
 
— 103 — 
 
 Melanchton wrote his "Apology" in 
 defense of the Confession ; but the 
 emperor refused to receive it. The 
 friends of Luther were threatened with 
 the sword; and in self-defense the Protes- 
 tant princes of Germany formed the so- 
 called Smalcald League. 
 
 There had long been some talk of a 
 new general church council; and in 
 preparation for it the Protestants held a 
 consultation in Smalcald in 1536. For 
 this occasion Luther set down in writing 
 those points to which the Protestants 
 must adhere under all circumstances. 
 This is the document known as the 
 Smalcald Articles. 
 
 In the year 1525, when he was forty- 
 two years old, Luther married Catharine 
 von Bora, who had been a nun. Himself 
 says of her that she was a a pious and 
 faithful wife, in whom the heart of her 
 husband could trust." By her he had 
 
— 104 — 
 
 three sons and three daughters. His 
 family life was a very happy one. He 
 was fond of seeing his friends about 
 him at his fireside, and of singing and 
 playing innocent games with his 
 children. 
 
 In the latter years of his life Luther 
 took part in several discussions with 
 members of different Protestant parties, 
 and was inciessantly active in adjusting 
 difficulties and disputes, writing treatises, 
 and revising his translation of the Bible. 
 For some years he was in poor health 
 and suffered much. He prayed that he 
 might not live to see the religious war 
 which was threatening Germany; and 
 his prayer was heard. In January, 1546, 
 he went to his birthplace, Eisleben, to 
 act as arbitrator between the Counts of 
 Mansfeld. On the way he caught a 
 severe cold. Still he continued for some 
 weeks to work and preach. On 
 
— 105 — 
 
 February 17 his illness took a bad turn; 
 and he realized that death was near. To 
 one of his sons and to his dear friend 
 Justus Jonas, who had accompanied him 
 from Wittenberg, he announced that he 
 hoped and expected to die in Eisleben, 
 where he had been born. Shortly after 
 midnight he had a sinking spell; and his 
 friends heard him say in the Latin 
 tongue: "Into thy hands I commend my 
 spirit; thou hast redeemed me, thou God 
 of truth." Justus Jonas bent over the 
 dying man and asked him, if he in death 
 still held fast the faith and doctrine 
 which he had preached. Luther answered 
 " Yes." This was his last word. He 
 clasped his hands in prayer, drew his 
 last breath, and fell asleep shortly before 
 three o'clock in the morning of 
 February 18, 1546. His remains are 
 buried in front of the pulpit in the castle 
 church at Wittenberg. 
 
— 106 — 
 
 The published works of Luther em- 
 brace, in Walch's Edition, 24 large 
 volumes; and in the Erlangen Edition, 
 100 volumes, 67 in German and 33 in 
 Latin. Of his hymns, which are 36 in 
 number, the best known is his "Battle 
 Hymn of the Reformation," "A Mighty 
 Fortress is our God." 
 
 The best biography of Luther is that 
 by Julius Kostlin; of which there are 
 two English translations. 
 
 Luther did not establish a new church; 
 he was the instrument by which the 
 church was led back to the old paths 
 marked out by Holy Writ. The lead- 
 ing and distinctive principles of Luther- 
 anism are these: 
 
 1. Human nature is entirely cor- 
 rupted by sin; and man has thus brought 
 upon himself divine wrath and condem- 
 nation, and has neither the will nor the 
 strength to save himself. 
 
— 107 — 
 
 2. God's grace and mercy proceed 
 entirely from his own free will, and not 
 from any merit whatever in sinful man. 
 
 3. The sufferings and death of 
 Christ were the price of man's redemp- 
 tion, and had infinite efficacy by reason 
 of the fact that Christ was not only true 
 man but true God. 
 
 4. Justification is not a change in 
 man, but an act of God alone, whereby, 
 for the sake of Christ's merit received 
 by faith, he forgives sin and pronounces 
 sinful man righteous. 
 
 5. Faith is a gift of God and a work 
 of the Holy Ghost wrought in man 
 through the means of grace, and is 
 neither in whole nor in part a result of 
 man's own endeavors. 
 
 6. The means of grace are the word 
 and sacraments, through which the Holy 
 Ghost is always active; so that they are 
 never without efficacy, although they do 
 
— 108 — 
 
 not by force save those who persistently 
 repel the Spirit. 
 
 7. Baptism is a means of regenera- 
 tion; and they who, after baptism, fall 
 from grace return by faith to the 
 covenant first made in baptism. 
 
 8. The body and blood of Christ are 
 truly present with and in the bread and 
 wine in the Lord's Supper, and are 
 given to all who partake of this sacra- 
 ment; but benefit and bless those only 
 who receive it worthily in faith. 
 
 9. The Holy Scriptures of the Old 
 and New Testament are the infallible 
 word of God, and are the sole sure rule 
 of faith, doctrine, and life; and in all 
 controversies they are the final judge, 
 from whose decision no appeal can be 
 taken. 
 
 10. In the New Testament, besides 
 the priesthood of our High Priest, Jesus 
 Christ, there exists only the spiritual 
 
— 109 — 
 
 priesthood of all believers; and these 
 have access to Christ directly and with- 
 out the mediation of saints, angels, or 
 any priestly order. 
 
 ii. The office * of the ministry 
 belongs to the whole church; but its 
 duties are ordinarily to be exercised 
 only by those who have been duly called 
 and set apart for this office. 
 
 2. ULRICH ZWINGLI AND JOHN CALVIN. 
 
 The reformed churches, so-called, 
 have their roots in Switzerland, in the 
 reformation there begun by Ulrich 
 Z-wingli. He was seven weeks younger 
 than Luther, having been born January 
 i, 1484, in a lowly shepherd's cot at 
 Wildhaus, in the canton of St. Gall, 
 Switzerland. He studied at Vienna and 
 Basel, and distinguished himself by his 
 learning and eloquence. In 1506 he 
 entered the priesthood and became very 
 
— 110 — 
 
 popular as a preacher, and also as a po- 
 litical agitator. In 1516 he was called 
 as pastor to Einsiedeln, and then he 
 began boldly to attack the superstitions 
 of the Roman church. Two years later 
 he was called to the cathedral at Zurich, 
 where he labored until his death. Gradu- 
 ally he broke loose from Romanism, de- 
 nouncing especially the worship of the 
 saints and the sale of indulgences. He 
 went beyond bounds and wanted to 
 abolish from the public church services 
 everything which was not expressly com- 
 manded in the Bible. There were to be 
 in the churches neither pictures, altars, 
 organs, nor bells; everything was to be 
 as in the days of "apostolic simplicity." 
 In September, 1529, Zwingli had a 
 personal conference with Luther and 
 Melanchton in Marburg. The principal 
 question discussed was that of the real 
 presence of the body and blood of Christ 
 
— Ill — 
 
 in the Lord's Supper. Luther insisted 
 on the plain and literal meaning of the 
 words of Christ: "This is my body. ^ 
 Zwingli, on the other hand, argued that 
 these words could not in reason be true 
 in their literal sense. He and his follow- 
 ers also denied that baptism is in truth 
 a means of regeneration. To them it 
 was only a ceremony by which one be- 
 comes a member of a church society. 
 Luther therefore felt it his duty to refuse 
 the hand of fellowship which Zwingli 
 held out to him at Marburg. 
 
 The ideas of Zwingli quickly spread 
 through the German cantons of Switzer- 
 land, while the other cantons remained 
 true to the Roman Catholic faith. With 
 the assistance of Austria the Catholics 
 began a persecution of the friends of 
 Zwingli, many of whom suffered death 
 at the stake. Zwingli urged the Prot- 
 estants to defend themselves, and war was 
 
— 112 — 
 
 declared. He himself acted as chaplain 
 of the regiment from Zurich, and lost 
 his life in the disastrous battle of Kappel, 
 October n, 1531. He was pierced by 
 a lance while bending down to comfort 
 a dying soldier. His last words were: 
 "What of it? They can indeed kill the 
 body, but they can not kill the soul." 
 His body was burned, and the ashes 
 scattered to the winds. A granite monu- 
 ment erected four hundred years later 
 marks the spot where he fell. 
 
 The work begun by Zwingli was con- 
 tinued by John Calvin, born at Noyen, 
 France, in 1509. As a young man he 
 was compelled to flee from Paris on 
 account of a speech, which he had pre- 
 pared and delivered, on the necessity of 
 reforming the church. In 1536 he settled 
 in Geneva, Switzerland, where he not 
 only became pastor of the largest church, 
 but made himself the head of the city 
 
— 113 — 
 
 government as well. After two years 
 he was banished, after which he spent 
 some time in Bern, Strassburg, and other 
 places, until 1541, when he returned in 
 triumph to Geneva, in answer to a 
 general demand on the part of the citi- 
 zens. For twenty-three years he now 
 ruled this city with an iron hand, keep- 
 ing up an incessant fight against the 
 abuses in the church and the vices of the 
 people. He was a harsh and stern man, 
 and there is one serious blot upon his 
 memory: Servetus, a Spanish physician, 
 had denied the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 and had been sentenced to death. He 
 made his escape from Spain and came 
 to Geneva. Calvin had him put on trial 
 for blasphemy, and Servetus was con- 
 demned and burned at the stake. 
 
 The influence of Calvin reached far 
 beyond the borders of Switzerland. 
 Fro.m the academy at Geneva teachers 
 
— 114 — 
 
 were sent to nearly all countries, and 
 Calvinism became the ruling system of 
 religion in many lands. The Synod of 
 Dort, Holland, in 1618, defined the 
 distinctive doctrines of Calvin in five 
 theses, which have therefore been called 
 "the five -points of Calvinism?' 1 These 
 five points affirm absolute predesti- 
 nation, particular redemption, total de- 
 pravity, irresistable grace, and the per- 
 severance of the saints. 
 
 3. THE EARLY STRUGGLES AND 
 TRIUMPHS OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 The efforts of the German emperor, 
 Charles V., to destroy the church of 
 the Reformation at last resulted in the 
 Smalcald War, which began shortly 
 after the time of Luther's death. The 
 most important German ally of the 
 emperor was Duke Maurice of Saxony. 
 This man was himself a Protestant, but 
 
— 115 — 
 
 now ranged himself with the enemies of 
 his religion and made war on his father- 
 in-law, Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who 
 with the Elector John Frederick of 
 Saxony was at the head of the Protes- 
 tant Smalcald League. With the as- 
 sistance of Duke Maurice the emperor 
 defeated the Protestants in the battle of 
 Muhlberg, 1546. John Frederick was 
 taken prisoner, and Philip of Hesse 
 surrendered himself to the emperor. 
 Duke Maurice was sent against the city 
 of Magdeburg, which was still under 
 arms; and now he saw his chance of 
 setting himself right with his former 
 Protestant friends. Instead of- attacking 
 Magdeburg he made a secret alliance 
 with King Henry II. of France, and 
 then marched against Innsbruck, where 
 the emperor lay ill. By a hasty flight 
 the emperor saved himself from being 
 made a prisoner, but by the Peace of 
 
— 116 — 
 
 Passau, 1552, he was compelled to 
 grant religious liberty to the Protestants. 
 This agreement was repeated by the 
 treaty of -peace adopted at Augsburg 
 in 1555. However, this religious liberty 
 applied only to the princes and nobles; 
 the common people were to obey their 
 masters in matters of faith. In the 
 course of time this arrangement led to 
 new trouble, which finally culminated in 
 the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 From Germany the Lutheran Refor- 
 mation first found its way to the Scan- 
 dinavian countries, and in a short time 
 the Evangelical faith became the domi- 
 nant religion in Denmark, Norway, 
 Sweden, their dependencies, Iceland and 
 Finland, and the Baltic provinces of 
 Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. 
 
 In Denmark the Reformation gained 
 a foothold almost as quickly as in Ger- 
 many. King Christian II. was for 
 
— 117 — 
 
 political reasons extremely desirous of 
 destroying the power of the priesthood; 
 and it was this circumstance, rather than 
 any vital interest in the true faith, which 
 caused him to ask his uncle, Elector 
 Frederick the Wise of Saxony, to send 
 a Lutheran teacher to Denmark. In 
 answer to this request one Martin 
 Reinhard came to Copenhagen; but he 
 did not understand the Danish language, 
 and could do nothing. He was soon 
 replaced by Carlstadt, the man who 
 afterward made so much trouble in 
 Wittenberg by his revolutionary 
 methods. He, also, remained in Den- 
 mark but a short time; and in 1523 
 King Christian himself was driven out 
 of his kingdom. His successor, Fred- 
 erick I., was compelled to promise 
 that he would permit no disciple of 
 Luther or any other "heretic" to preach 
 against the Roman church. In spite of 
 
— 118 — 
 
 this promise, however, he encouraged 
 the Evangelical doctrine to the extent 
 of his power. Hans Tausen had been 
 a student in Wittenberg, and now re- 
 turned to his home in Denmark a zealous 
 Lutheran. He began to preach the 
 gospel in Viborg, and was thrown into 
 prison. But he was soon released, and 
 King Frederick gave him permission to 
 continue his preaching, which he did 
 until his death, in 1 561, as bishop of 
 Ribe. A meeting of the nobles in 
 Odense, 1527, declared for full religious 
 liberty, and abolished the rule which 
 prohibited the marriage of the clergy. 
 There were also at this time published 
 two Danish translations of the New 
 Testament, one by Hans Mikkelson and 
 one by Christiern Pederson. At a diet 
 in Copenhagen, in 1530, the Lutherans 
 presented to the king a confession of 
 their faith in 43 articles, while the 
 
— 119 — 
 
 Roman Catholics laid before him a 
 formal complaint and a demand that the 
 new "heresy" be suppressed. 
 
 After some discussion the king de- 
 clared that he would protect both 
 parties in their equal rights. King 
 Frederick died in 1533; and his suc- 
 cessor, Christian III., called a diet in 
 Copenhagen, 1536, which formally 
 adopted the Evangelical Lutheran faith 
 as the official religion of the country. 
 Luther's friend, Dr. Bugenhagen, was 
 called and came from Wittenberg to 
 superintend the new arrangements; 
 Lutheran pastors were appointed, and 
 Roman Catholicism was thoroughly 
 weeded out. In 1550 was published the 
 first complete translation of the Bible in 
 the Danish tongue. 
 
 In Norway, which at this time was 
 united with Denmark, Lutheranism was 
 formally introduced as the established 
 
— 120 — 
 
 religion, in 1537. Some of the people, 
 however, clung tenaciously to their old 
 faith, and in several parishes the Evan- 
 gelical preachers received rough treat- 
 ment. But the Reformation made rapid 
 headway, especially through the efforts 
 of Bishop Jorgen Erikson of Stavanger, 
 who has been called the Luther of Nor- 
 way. Still, it was not until in the be- 
 ginning of the seventeenth century, 
 under King Christian IV., that the 
 Lutheran church had taken root in all 
 parts of the country. 
 
 From Norway the Evangelical doc- 
 trine was carried to Iceland, where it at 
 first met with bitter resistance. The 
 Catholic bishop, Jon Areson, sought 
 by force and violence to destroy the 
 friends of the Reformation, for which 
 reason he was arrested and executed, 
 in 1550. Iceland is said now to be more 
 thoroughly and entirely Lutheran than 
 
— 121 — 
 
 any other district or country in the world. 
 In Sweden the Evangelical doctrine 
 encountered some resistance, but there 
 was no serious trouble in connection with 
 its introduction. Two brothers, Olaf 
 and Lars Pederson, had been students 
 in Wittenberg and had become warmly 
 attached to the Lutheran faith. On 
 their return to Sweden they began to 
 preach the gospel, and found a staunch 
 supporter in King Gustavus Vasa. One 
 of their first converts was Bishop Lars 
 Anderson, who afterward became the 
 chancellor of the kingdom. King 
 Gustavus had himself been in Germany, 
 where he had learned to know and to 
 love the Lutheran doctrine. He called 
 Olaf Pederson to Stockholm and made 
 Lars Pederson archbishop of Upsala; 
 and a diet in Westeraas, 1544, passed 
 resolutions renouncing all Roman here- 
 sies and superstitions, and pledging the 
 
— 122 — 
 
 king and people of Sweden never to de- 
 part from the Lutheran faith. After the 
 death of Gustavus Vasa some Roman 
 emissaries made strenuous attempts to 
 bring Sweden back into the fold, but 
 they had no success. A general council 
 of the Swedish church at Upsala, in 1593, 
 declared its unshaken devotion to the 
 teachings of the Augsburg Confession. 
 Through their close relations with 
 Sweden the Baltic Provinces, as well as 
 Finland, were won for Lutheranism. In 
 France, the Netherlands, Poland, Bohe- 
 mia, and Hungary the Lutheran Refor- 
 mation gained foothold for a time, but 
 was, in greater or less measure, 
 gradually supplanted by the Catholic, 
 or by the Reformed church. 
 
 4. THE GROWTH OF THE REFORMED 
 CHURCH. 
 
 By "the Church of the Reformation" 
 is meant the Lutheran church, while 
 
— 123 — 
 
 u the Reformed church" is to be under- 
 stood as embracing all those many 
 protestant sects and denominations which 
 have sprung up out of the movement 
 begun in Switzerland by Zwingli and 
 Calvin, and which, in a general way, 
 may be said to differ from the Lutheran 
 church in having, more or less, disre- 
 garded or perverted the sacraments. 
 
 The early victories of the Reformed 
 church were won at the cost of much 
 blood, and changed not only the re- 
 ligious, but also the political complexion 
 of England, France, the Netherlands, 
 and other countries. 
 
 England had in a way been prepared 
 for the Reformation, especially through 
 the work of John Wyclif and his follow- 
 ers. Many were disposed to lend ear 
 to the Evangelical doctrine which came 
 to them from Germany. But the Eng- 
 lish king, Henry VIII. , of unsavory 
 
— 124 — 
 
 memory, forbade the introduction of 
 Luther's writings into the country, and 
 began to persecute the friends of the 
 Reformation. He even had the boldness 
 to write a book against Luther "on the 
 Seven Sacraments," and was rewarded 
 by the Roman pope with the title, 
 "Defender of the Faith." In his reply 
 Luther handled the king pretty roughly, 
 and this incensed Henry all the more 
 against the Evangelical doctrine. In 
 1534, however, he had a falling out with 
 the pope. The king had grown tired of 
 his old queen, Catharine of Arragon, and 
 had divorced her, in order to marry 
 Anne Boleyn. But Catharine was the 
 aunt of Emperor Charles V. of Germany, 
 and the pope could not afford to sanction 
 the doings of the king, and thus give 
 offense to the more powerful emperor. 
 King Henry then declared himself inde- 
 pendent of Rome, and proclaimed him- 
 
— 125 — 
 
 self head of the English church. He 
 cared nothing about the matter of doc- 
 trine, but persecuted all alike who would 
 not recognize his supremacy. Still, the 
 situation was such that it gave pious 
 men, notably Archbishop Cranmer of 
 Canterbury, an opportunity to advance 
 the cause of the gospel. King Henry 
 died in 1547, and his son and successor, 
 Edward VI., was but a child. His chief 
 advisors were friendly to the Reforma- 
 tion and allowed Cranmer to continue 
 his work. This was largely carried on 
 by teachers who were under the influ- 
 ence of John Calvin, and thus it came 
 about that the Reformed church gained 
 the upper hand. Queen Mary, 1553- 
 1558, who came to the throne at the 
 death of Edward, was the daughter of 
 King Henry by Catharine, and was by 
 birth and training a zealous Catholic. 
 She caused Archbishop Cranmer and 
 
— 126 — 
 
 many others to be burned at the stake, 
 and earned her name of "Bloody Mary." 
 Her sister and successor, Queen Eliza- 
 beth, was a Protestant, and during her 
 long reign the reformation of the church 
 was completed. The parliament by 
 formal resolution established the English 
 Episcopal church, and the Thirty-nine 
 Articles were adopted and made binding 
 on all ministers and teachers of religion. 
 These Articles were originally forty-two, 
 and had, together with the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, been prepared by Cranmer 
 and others during the reign of King 
 Edward VI. Their doctrine in regard 
 to the sacraments is in the main that of 
 Calvin. The two sacraments are de- 
 clared to be "effectual signs of grace, 
 and of God's good will toward us." 
 Apart from this the Articles are to a 
 great extent taken from the Augsburg 
 Confession. 
 
— 127 — 
 
 The reformer of the church in Scot- 
 land was John Knox, a friend of Calvin. 
 He led a stormy life and was in many 
 dangers, but he had an iron will and tire- 
 less energy, and succeeded in establish- 
 ing the Presbyterian church, which was 
 the embodiment of pure Calvinism. 
 
 In Ireland, also, the Protestant church 
 was established, but about three-fourths 
 of the people remained Roman Catho- 
 lics. On several occasions they have 
 risen in revolt against the religion which 
 had thus been forced upon them; and, 
 in the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 the Prostestant Episcopal church was at 
 last disestablished. 
 
 In the Netherlands, which at that 
 time included both Holland and Belgium, 
 the efforts to reform the church were 
 accompanied by much bloodshed. The 
 first martyrs were two young Lutherans, 
 Henrik Voes and John Esch. It was, 
 
— 128 — 
 
 however, the Reformed church which 
 eventually came to be established in the 
 Netherlands. The country was a part 
 of the empire of Charles V., and he did 
 everything possible to stop the work of 
 the reformers. His son Philip II., who 
 had married the Bloody Mary of Eng- 
 land, was a most cruel and violent man. 
 By means of the horrible Inquisition he 
 attempted not only to suppress the re- 
 ligious reform movement, but also to 
 destroy all the political liberties of the 
 people. The duke of Alva was appointed 
 governor of the Netherlands, and by his 
 shocking cruelties proved himself a 
 worthy servant of Philip II. In self- 
 defense the northern provinces formed 
 the Utrecht Union; and after a long and 
 bloody struggle they won their inde- 
 pendence and organized the Dutch re- 
 public, in 1569, and established the 
 Dutch Reformed church. 
 
— 129 — 
 
 In France the Protestants were known 
 as Huguenots. They suffered bitter 
 persecutions; and many thousands of 
 them were foully murdered. They were 
 drawn into the long fight between the 
 two great rival families, the Guises and 
 the Bourbons, and in the massacre on 
 the night of St. Bartholomew, August 
 25, 1572, not less than 35,000 Hugue- 
 nots were slain. In 1594 Henry of 
 Navarre, the head of the Bourbons, be- 
 came king of France. He had for poli- 
 tical reasons joined the Catholic church, 
 but was friendly to the Protestants; and 
 in 1598 he published the Edict of Nantes, 
 which gave the Huguenots equal re- 
 ligious liberty with the Catholics. Later 
 this Edict was revoked, and the Hugue- 
 nots suffered further persecutions, es- 
 pecially during the rule of the famous 
 Cardinal Richelieu. The Reformed 
 church has never thrived in France, 
 
— 130 — 
 
 5. THE JESUITS. 
 
 While the Lutheran church was 
 making its way in the countries to the 
 north, and the Reformed church in those 
 to the west of Germany, the Roman 
 Catholic church was not idle. It pre- 
 vented the Reformation from gaining 
 any foothold in Italy and Spain, and it 
 recaptured nearly all of Hungary and 
 France and large districts of Germany, 
 Bohemia, and other countries. One of 
 the measures taken to counteract the Re- 
 formation was the calling together of a 
 general church council at Trent. This 
 council was convened by Pope Paul III., 
 in 1545. It lasted, with two long inter- 
 missions, until 1563. One of its first 
 acts was to condemn the doctrines of 
 Luther. The council also published a 
 number of books defining the position of 
 the Catholic church. Among them are 
 
-131 - 
 
 the Tridentine Confession, the Roman 
 Catechism, a new edition of the Latin 
 Bible, and an index or list of those books 
 which Catholics were not allowed to 
 read. 
 
 In the Council of Trent an important 
 role was played by the Jesuits. This 
 society was a most effective weapon in 
 the hands of the pope, and deserves more 
 than a passing mention. 
 
 The founder of the order of Jesuits, or 
 "Society of Jesus," was Ignatius Loyola, 
 a Spanish knight, born 149 1. In one of 
 the wars between Spain and France he 
 was seriously wounded and lay for a long 
 time on a sickbed. He read pious 
 legends, and these inflamed him with the 
 desire to win eternal glory in the service 
 of the church. He vowed to be a knight 
 of the holy Virgin, gave all his pos- 
 sessions to the poor, and became a Do- 
 minican monk. He prayed and fasted 
 
— 132 — 
 
 and subjected himself to a course of most 
 severe discipline. Then he went to the 
 Holy Land, purposing to convert the 
 Mohammedans, but soon found that in 
 order to accomplish anything he must 
 have a better school training. He there- 
 fore returned to Spain, where he began 
 to study and to preach. He was sus- 
 pected of disloyalty to the church, and 
 was for a time even imprisoned by one 
 of the courts of the Inquisition. On 
 regaining his liberty he went to Paris, 
 and although he was now near forty 
 years old, he became a regular student 
 in one oi the schools. Here he and other 
 Spanish students formed a religious 
 society, and made the vow that they 
 either would work as missionaries in the 
 Holy Land, or would offer their services 
 to the pope of Rome and promise him 
 implicit obedience. Eventually they 
 chose the latter course, and in 1540 Pope 
 
— 133 — 
 
 Paul III. gave Loyola authority to 
 organize the Society of Jesuits. This 
 religious order soon came to wield tre- 
 mendous power. Its members were 
 selected with great care and were trained 
 to have no will or opinions of their own, 
 but with blind obedience to do the 
 bidding of their general, who on his part 
 acknowledged no authority but that of 
 the pope. During the fifteen years in 
 which Loyola was the head of the so- 
 ciety it made rapid headway, and soon 
 had control of many schools. Jesuits 
 were to be met with everywhere and in 
 all professions. They were lawyers and 
 physicians and bankers and professors, 
 and acquired great wealth. The one 
 aim of the Jesuits was to extend the 
 power of the pope. They sought to 
 bring the New World under the rule of 
 Rome, and in the Protestant countries 
 they exerted themselves, by the Inqui- 
 
— 134 — 
 
 sition and other means, to weed out the 
 new ideas. The Jesuits it was who took 
 Austria and Belgium and parts of other 
 countries away from the Protestants, 
 and who induced Philip II., the Bloody 
 Mary and other Catholic sovereigns to 
 slay thousands upon thousands in order 
 to suppress religious liberty. In Ger- 
 many the intrigues of the Jesuits finally 
 brought on the horrors of the Thirty 
 Years 7 War, 1618-1648, by which large 
 districts were laid waste. The Prot- 
 estant hero of the century was King 
 Gustavus Adolfthus of Sweden, who 
 fell in the battle of Lutzen, 1632. After 
 the close of this war the Jesuits began 
 to be regarded with suspicion by many 
 Catholics. They came to be looked 
 upon as dangerous to the state; and the 
 society was, in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, dissolved and pro- 
 hibited in France, Spain, and Portugal 
 
— 135 — 
 
 In 1773 Clemence XIV., a pope who 
 distinguished himself by the purity of 
 his life, dissolved the Society of Jesuits 
 for ever. It is generally supposed that 
 he thereby signed his own death war- 
 rant. At any rate he died a year later 
 from eating food which had been poi- 
 soned. In 1 8 14 the society was es- 
 tablished anew by Pope Pius VII. , and 
 it is to this day the strongest prop of 
 popery. 
 
 6. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES IN THE 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH. 
 
 Shortly after the death of Luther the 
 Lutheran church became, to some ex- 
 tent, divided against itself. There were 
 two parties, one of which demanded 
 strict adherence to the Evangelical doc- 
 trine, while the other was disposed to 
 secure peace by making some con- 
 cessions to the Roman and the Reformed 
 
— 136 — 
 
 church. The leader of the first party 
 was Mathias Flacius of the University 
 of Jena, and at the head of the other 
 party stood Philip Melanchton, whose 
 natural timidity, now that Luther no 
 longer was at his side, led him to yield 
 where he should have stood firm. He 
 and his adherents were accused of teach- 
 ing synergism,, that is, the doctrine that 
 man can assist God in the work of con- 
 version. They were also charged with 
 making concessions to Calvinism, es- 
 pecially in regard to the doctrine con- 
 cerning the real presence of the body 
 and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. 
 In the midst of these controversies Me- 
 lanchton died, April 19, 1560. 
 
 Professor Jacob Andrea of Tubingen 
 took the lead in the attempt which was 
 now made to restore peace in the 
 Lutheran church. Together with Martin 
 Chemnitz, Nicholas Selnecker and others 
 
— 137 — 
 
 he, in 1577, compiled and edited a new- 
 Confession, which was to declare in 
 words not to be misunderstood the doc- 
 trine of the church on the points in dis- 
 pute. This Confession is called the 
 Formula of Concord. It is recognized 
 as one of the symbols of the Lutheran 
 church, though it has not been formally 
 adopted as such in all Lutheran lands. 
 
 The first half of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury is known as the age of Lutheran 
 Orthodoxy. The teachers of the church 
 laid great stress on the preservation of 
 the true doctrine; to such an extent, in- 
 deed, that they have been accused of 
 forgetting the importance of the Christian 
 life. The most famous of the theo- 
 logians of this age was John Gerhard, 
 professor in the University of Jena. — 
 However, the orthodox spirit of the 
 church in the seventeenth century bore 
 rich fruit in the form of devotional books 
 
— 138 — 
 
 and the many grand Lutheran hymns. 
 Among them the best known are John 
 Arndt's "The True Christianity," Chr. 
 Scriver's "The Soul's Treasure," and the 
 hymns of Paul Gerhardt and Thomas 
 Kingo. 
 
 As a protest against what was called 
 "dead orthodoxism" there appeared, in 
 the latter half of the century, the "pietistic 
 movement." Philip Jacob Sftener, the 
 "Father of Pietism," was a minister in 
 Frankfort am Main, and afterward in Ber- 
 lin, where he died in 1705. He labored 
 diligently for a religious revival of the 
 church, and had great influence. A new 
 university was founded at Halle, and all 
 its professors were chosen from among 
 the pietists and were disciples of Spener. 
 The best known of them is August 
 Herman Francke. He built in Halle a 
 great Orphans' Home, and is held in 
 high regard as the founder of this branch 
 
— 139 — 
 
 of practical Christian charity. While 
 the vital piety of such men as Spener 
 and Francke can not be doubted, it must 
 be admitted that the pietistic movement 
 developed some traits which were not 
 altogether good. There appeared among 
 the later pietists a certain disregard for 
 the public church services, for the regu- 
 lar office of the ministry, and for the 
 sacraments, together with a fondness 
 for judging others, and some carelessness 
 in regard to preserving the sound doc- 
 trine. A striking illustration is furnished 
 by the career of Count Nicholas Zin- 
 zendorf, one of the disciples of Francke. 
 He organized, in 1722, a new church, 
 which was to admit to membership 
 Christians of all shades of belief. On 
 one of his estates in Saxony he founded 
 his city of Herrnhut, and there organized 
 his church of the "United Brethren." 
 After some years he was ordered out of 
 
— 140 — 
 
 Saxony, and he then visited the different 
 countries of Europe, as well as America, 
 and began mission work in many places. 
 When Zinzendorf died, in 1760, August 
 Spangenberg became the leader of the 
 United Brethren, since which time this 
 church, known as the Moravian, has 
 become more sober. It was and is es- 
 pecially active in sending missionaries to 
 the people sitting in darkness. 
 
 Among the men of the eighteenth 
 century to whom the Lutheran church 
 owes a debt of gratitude should be men- 
 tioned Dr. Erik Pontoppidan, who was 
 bishop of Bergen, Norway; Bishop Hans 
 Adolph Brorson, who is the author of 
 many excellent Lutheran hymns; and 
 King Christian VI. of Denmark and 
 Norway, who by introducing the rite of 
 confirmation in his kingdom has done 
 incalculably much for the religious edu- 
 cation of the people. 
 
141 
 
 7. THE DIVISIONS OF THE REFORMED 
 CHURCH. 
 
 From time to time there have sprung 
 up out of the Reformed church numerous 
 sects and denominations, which have 
 invented new doctrines almost without 
 number. Only a few of the most im- 
 portant of these divisions need here be 
 mentioned. 
 
 In England and Scotland those who 
 did not want the Episcopal church 
 government — that is, government by 
 bishops — first organized themselves as 
 Presbyterians, or such as are governed 
 by the presbyteries. In mistaken zeal 
 they insisted on doing away with even 
 the most appropriate of the time-honored 
 religious ceremonies or features of the 
 church service, which to them seemed 
 to smack of Roman Catholicism; and in 
 their discipline they were strict and 
 
— 142 — 
 
 austere, for which reason they came to 
 be called Puritans. 
 
 From the Presbyterians sprung the 
 Independents, who were the ruling party 
 in England during the protectorate of 
 Cromwell in the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century. The Independents 
 wanted no church organization what- 
 ever, except the local congregations. 
 For this reason they are now known as 
 Congregationalists. 
 
 The Baptists reject infant baptism 
 and insist on the baptism of adults by 
 immersion and in no other way. They 
 have no historical connection with the 
 old Anabaptists and the Mennonites, but 
 have the same doctrine in regard to 
 baptism. They have become one of the 
 strongest of the Reformed denomina- 
 tions, and have done much mission work. 
 They are divided into many factions, 
 some of which still are Calvinists in the 
 
— 143 — 
 
 doctrine of predestination, while others 
 are Arminians and reject predestination 
 altogether. 
 
 The Society of Friends, commonly 
 called the Quakers, was organized in 
 England by George Fox, in 1649. He 
 was a journeyman shoemaker who 
 thought that he had revelations from 
 heaven, and who therefore left the 
 cobbler's bench and became a preacher. 
 He and his friends were in the habit of 
 making their way into the churches and 
 disturbing the services, for which 
 reason they were for a time the objects 
 of bitter persecution. The great men 
 among them after the death of George 
 Fox were William Penn, who founded 
 the American colony of Pennsylvania; 
 and Robert Barclay, who is the author 
 of their confession of faith. In their 
 meetings the Quakers sit in silence and 
 wait for the spirit to move some man or 
 
— 144 — 
 
 woman to preach. Should none among 
 them be moved to say anything, they as 
 quietly disperse. They despise the 
 sacraments, and they refuse to take an 
 oath and to do military service. In the 
 United States they have a high reputa- 
 tion for thrift, honesty, and deeds of 
 charity. 
 
 The Methodist church was organized 
 in London, in 1739, by John Wesley, 
 Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield. 
 The Methodists may be said to be the 
 pietists of the Reformed church. The 
 founders of Methodism were zealous 
 young preachers from Oxford, who 
 travelled from place to place holding 
 meetings in the open air and preaching 
 repentance. John Wesley and White- 
 field visited America several times and 
 made many converts; and the Methodist 
 Episcopal church is numerically the 
 strongest of the Protestant denomina- 
 
— 145 — 
 
 tions in the United States. The 
 Methodists agree with the other Re- 
 formed churches in their view of the 
 sacraments; besides which they teach 
 that Christian perfection may be reached 
 in this life. Usually their revivals are 
 attended with much excitement; and 
 they expect converts to be able to men- 
 tion the exact moment in which they 
 were saved. — An outgrowth of 
 Methodism is the Salvation Army, 
 founded in London by William Booth. 
 
 8. THE CHURCH IN OUR TIMES. 
 
 The last years of the eighteenth, and 
 the early years of the nineteenth century 
 are aptly called the Age of Rationalism. 
 It was the age in which men, who 
 thought themselves wise, began to claim 
 for unaided human reason the right to 
 be the supreme judge in all matters, 
 including matters of religious faith. 
 
— 146 — 
 
 The first open apostles of infidelity 
 appeared in England. They were 
 called deists, and professed a sort of 
 natural religion, the only articles of 
 their creed being belief in the existence 
 of a Creator and the immortality of the 
 soul. The principal spokesmen of this 
 form of "free thought 7 ' were Lord 
 Spencer, Hobbes, and Tindal. The 
 writings of these men and of Spinoza, 
 Descartes, and others were widely read 
 in France and Germany, and had much 
 greater influence in these countries than 
 in England. 
 
 In France the apostles of infidelity 
 went further, and denied the truth of 
 all religions. Voltaire was filled with 
 bitter hatred of the Christian faith, and 
 made the vain boast that he would 
 destroy that which " twelve ignorant 
 fishermen had built," In this attempt he 
 was assisted by Jean Jacques Rousseau. 
 
— 147 — 
 
 They seemed to win a victory during 
 the French Revolution of 1789, when God 
 was dethroned in France and replaced 
 for a time by "the Goddess of Reason." 
 
 In Germany " free thought " was 
 especially cultivated and honored at 
 the court of King Frederick the Great. 
 After his time the University of Halle, 
 which had been founded by the 
 pietists, became the chief hot-bed of 
 infidelity; and Prof. Johann Salomo 
 Semler is the man who is most commonly 
 called the "Father of Rationalism," while 
 Friederich Schleiermacher of the same 
 university occupies a sort of middle 
 ground between open infidelity and the 
 evangelical faith, and has come to have 
 a baneful influence on the religious 
 thought of our day. 
 
 From Germany rationalism spread to 
 the North and sapped the strength of 
 the church. 
 
— 148 — 
 
 In the midst of this age of infidelity 
 there were, however, also many men of 
 talent and piety who held aloft the old 
 banner of faith. 
 
 The new spiritual awakening among 
 the Lutherans of the nineteenth century 
 may be counted as having begun in 1817, 
 the third centennial anniversary of the 
 Reformation. On that occasion Claus 
 Harms in Kiel published ninety-five 
 theses against rationalism, and thus 
 caused a discussion which eventually 
 brought to an end the Age of Ration- 
 alism in the Lutheran church. In Den- 
 mark the light began to come largely 
 through the instrumentality of N. F. S. 
 Grundtvig, the "Seer of the North;" 
 while in Norway the new day was 
 ushered in by the lay preacher Hans 
 Nilsen Hauge. In 1796 this man began 
 to travel about and call the people to re- 
 pentance. At that time this was unlaw- 
 
— 149 — 
 
 ful in Norway, and Hauge was made to 
 spend ten long years in prison in Chris- 
 tiania. In the meantime his work was 
 bearing fruit, and before his death, in 
 1824, there were "Haugians" in all parts 
 of the country. At the same time there 
 was in Sweden a similar movement, 
 stirring large numbers of the people 
 with an unwonted religious fervor. 
 
 The period which has been called the 
 Age of Rationalism had come to an end, 
 but the spirit of unbelief has revealed 
 itself in many new forms. Churches 
 have been established whose members, 
 while calling themselves Christians, re- 
 ject even the central truths of the Chris- 
 tian faith. Others preach crass materi- 
 alism, and still others hold that it is the 
 part of true wisdom to eat, drink, and be 
 merry, and to live without restraint ac- 
 cording to the lusts of the flesh. 
 
 The church of Christ has, however, 
 
— 150 — 
 
 during the nineteenth century also, been 
 fighting the good fight against the hosts 
 of unbelief. Christians have especially 
 been active in bringing light into the 
 dark places by means of the Bible. One 
 of the hopeful signs of the times is the 
 fact that Bible Societies have been 
 formed in nearly all Christian lands. 
 First place is held by the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, which was or- 
 ganized in London in 1804, anc ^ which 
 has caused the Bible to be translated 
 into almost all languages, and has dis- 
 tributed many million copies of the sacred 
 Book. Monuments of practical Christian 
 charity are to be seen on every hand, 
 and zealous Christian missionaries are 
 laboring in all parts of the earth. 
 
 In the Roman Catholic church con- 
 ditions have remained practically un- 
 changed, except in respect to the tem- 
 poral power of the pope. He is no 
 
— 151 — 
 
 longer the ruler of the States of the 
 Church, these having, as a result of the 
 revolution of 1859, become a part of the 
 Kingdom of Italy. In the United States 
 the Roman church has developed great 
 strength; so great, indeed, that it has at 
 times seemed a serious menace to poli- 
 tical and religious liberty. The main 
 purpose of the Evangelical Alliance of 
 the Reformed churches, which was or- 
 ganized in London in 1846, is to defend 
 religious liberty in all lands against 
 aggressions on the part of the Roman 
 Catholic church. 
 
 Our Lutheran church has, during the 
 last century, had a rapid growth, and is 
 by far the largest of the Protestant de- 
 nominations. It still is dominant in the 
 Scandinavian countries and Finland, in 
 the Baltic Provinces, in some parts of 
 Hungary, and in large districts of Ger- 
 many. In this latter country it has, 
 
— 152 — 
 
 however, had a hard struggle for exist- 
 ence, especially by reason of the so-called 
 Prussian Union, or alliance between the 
 Lutheran and Reformed churches. King 
 Frederick William III. of Prussia con- 
 ceived the idea that he could do a 
 service to the cause of religion by 
 bringing about such an alliance. The 
 assumption was that there was essential 
 unity of faith between all Protestants, 
 and so they were to be united in one or- 
 ganization. The "old Lutherans," as 
 they were called, and many others also, 
 protested against this arrangement, and 
 were on that account harassed and mo- 
 lested in different ways, until King Fred- 
 erick William IV., on his accession to the 
 throne in 1840, gave them permission 
 to secede from the established church 
 and form the independent Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church of Prussia. Before 
 that time, in 1837, a considerable 
 
— 153 — 
 
 number of the Lutherans had, in order 
 to escape annoyance and persecution, 
 emigrated to the United States. 
 Among these emigrants was the one 
 man who for half a century held first 
 place among the Lutheran teachers of 
 America, Dr. C. F. W. Walther. 
 The membership of the Lutheran 
 church in the United States is increas- 
 ing more rapidly than is that of any 
 other Protestant church. 
 
 The open apostles of unbelief are tire- 
 lessly active; and there are sects and par- 
 ties almost without number. Yet we need 
 have no fear that the true church of 
 Christ may be overthrown, for it is 
 engaged in doing the work of the 
 Master, who has said : U A11 power is 
 given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 
— 154 — 
 
 Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you; and, lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the worldc 
 Amen." 
 
SEP 2 1902 
 
 I COP niv. 
 
 SEP. : 1902 
 
9EP2- 1302